Let’s say you’re talking to someone—no, someone is talking to you—and that person is really enjoying the sound of his or her own voice. You feel trapped and don’t have the energy to withdraw. Try playing flâneur and look for the artistic, and perhaps comic, value of the situation. I have observed very boring conversations—no, monologues—come to life when I look at the speaker as a work of art: the character lines on his face, the way he or she gestures, the color of her lipstick. For extreme talkers, it usually matters not if we are listening—they just want to talk.
