I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I read more

I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk. -D.J. Kaufman.

Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk. -D.J. Kaufman.

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.

It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. -Oliver Wendell Holmes.

It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. -Oliver Wendell Holmes.

An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside of one's read more

An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside of one's own prejudices, frames of reference and desires so as to experience as far as possible the speaker's world from the inside, step in inside his or her shoes. This unification of speaker and listener is actually and extension and enlargement of ourselves, and new knowledge is always gained from this. Moreover, since true listening involves bracketing, a setting aside of the self, it also temporarily involves a total acceptance of the other. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will fell less and less vulnerable and more and more inclined to open up the inner recesses of his or her mind to the listener. As this happens, speaker and listener begin to appreciate each other more and more, and the duet dance of love is begun again. -M. Scott Peck.

And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed.

And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed.

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force...When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold read more

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force...When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life...When we listen to people there is an alternating current, and this recharges us so that we never get tired of each other...and it is this little creative fountain inside us that begins to spring and cast up new thoughts and unexpected laughter and wisdom. ...Well, it is when people really listen to us, with quiet facinated attention, that the little fountain begins to work again, to accelerate in the most surprising way. -Brenda Ueland.

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.

To be listened to is, generally speaking, a nearly unique experience for most people. It is enormously stimulating. It is read more

To be listened to is, generally speaking, a nearly unique experience for most people. It is enormously stimulating. It is small wonder that people who have been demanding all their lives to be heard so often fall speechless when confronted with one who gravely agrees to lend an ear. Man clamors for the freedom to express himself and for knowing that he counts. But once offered these conditions, he becomes frigthened. -Robert C. Murphy.