He who sedulously attends, pointedly asks, calmly speaks, coolly answers, and ceases when he has no more to say, is in possession of some of the best requisites of man.

Five plain habits do most of the work in conversation: listening properly, asking a real question, saying your piece without heat, answering without defensiveness, and stopping when you have finished. None of them requires cleverness, and together they make someone unusually easy to deal with. The last is the rarest, since most people keep going past their point to fill the space.

Choose one of these for the week, and make it the stopping. Say what you have to say, then stop talking, and let the silence sit there without rescuing it.