Conversing with your characters

I find it odd that I had never thought of it before. For some reason I stopped writing and it ended up being in the middle of a scene. I didn't get back to it for a day or so and I was lost. One of my characters threw out "I have a question" and just after, I had to leave off writing. Of course when I came back to it and re-read it I was thinking…okay, what was the question he wanted to ask? For the life of me I couldn't remember. I went back to the beginning of the chapter and read it again.  No clue! So I thought and thought, running the scene through my mind trying to think what he could possibly want to ask, under the situation. Then I decided to ask him. Given the dialogue going on and the topic of discussion I thought of my character, his frame of mind and what he really wanted to know. I uttered his name in my mind and asked him what the question was that he wanted to ask. It took a few moments of sifting through the conversation again and finally the question came to me. I was able to go on with the scene and keep writing. Since then I have tried to delve into the minds of my characters more closely so I could know exactly what they are thinking and feeling. When I move onto the 3rd and 4th books of the series I have high hopes that my characters will visit me more often, letting me know what they want to say.