And there is monologue disguised as dialogue, in which two or more men, meeting in space, speak each with himself in strangely tortuous and circuitous ways and yet imagine they have escaped the torment of being thrown back on their own resources. – Martin Buber (1878—1965), translated from German

There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all. – Rebecca West, “There is No Conversation,” 1934

The true genius shudders at incompleteness — and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be. – Edgar Allan Poe