Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone.
ATTRIBUTION:
Deborah Tannen (20th century), U.S. author. You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, Ch. 1 (1990).
