The quiet friend’s playlist will tell you more about them than a year of small talk.

Small talk is a protocol, not a conversation. It is designed to be safe, which means it tells you almost nothing about anybody, and the quiet people are not empty, they are just not going to hand you anything through that channel. What they choose tells you far more than what they say.

Try asking about choices rather than about facts. What they are listening to at the moment, the last thing they watched twice, what they would play in the car if nobody judged. Most quiet people will talk at length about exactly one subject, and the only skill involved is finding out which one.