"Two people are talking together. They understand each other, and they fall silent - a long silence. This silence is language; it may speak more eloquently than any words. In their mood they are attuned to each other; they may even reach down into that understanding which ... lies below the level of articulation. The three - mood, understanding, and speech (a speech here that is silence) - thus interweave and are one. This significant, speaking silence shows us that sounds or marks do not constitute the essence of language. Nor is this silence merely a gap in our chatter; it is, rather, the primordial attunement of one existent to another, out of which all language - as sounds, marks, and counters - comes. It is only because man is capable of such silence that he is capable of authentic speech. If he ceases to be rooted in that silence all his talk becomes chatter."
-William Barret, Irrational Man
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