Marcelo in the Real World Language and Communication Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

I hear a lot of "Then he said" or "Then she said" and this reporting of what other people have said is retold with a lot of emotion. This I think is the law firm's equivalent of large talk, since emotion is not something that accompanies small talk. (8.4)

It's often the bottling up of emotion that accompanies small talk. For example, when someone asks you how you are, you may be really awful, but you say you're fine because that's what you're supposed to say. Plus you don't want to totally freak them out by bursting into sobs.

Quote #5

Even when she is angry, like at Juliet for example, you can tell that the anger does not affect her. The reason I can tell is that her breathing never alters. A person who is truly angry has physical reactions that last for a while, even after the event that caused the anger is gone. (8.27)

Can you imagine having to learn about human emotions not by feeling them, but by observing how they affect other people physically? Would it be more frightening to witness anger as Marcelo, or as a "normal" person?

Quote #6

Actually I am asking myself if conversations between friends always feel like this—two minds bound together by their focus on the same subject. (9.40)

Conversations do feel this way—if they're good. Otherwise, why would Marcelo get teary-eyed for the first time when Jasmine makes a list for him like the kind he makes for himself? And how would Jasmine have known what kind of list to make?