"Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after"
About this Quote
Good communication doesn’t merely transmit information in Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s line; it jolts the system. By pairing conversation with black coffee, she makes connection feel physical: a stimulant, not a balm. That’s the sly pivot. We tend to praise “good communication” as soothing, conflict-resolving, domestically responsible. Lindbergh frames it as something that keeps you awake - alert, alive, maybe even slightly wrecked. The compliment comes with a warning label.
The intent is both romantic and disciplined. “Good” here isn’t small talk or polished rhetoric; it’s the rare exchange that actually lands, where another mind presses back and changes your internal temperature. The subtext is that real understanding is not neutral. It produces aftereffects: mental replay, new angles, the inability to return to your old complacency. If you’ve ever had a late-night conversation that made your pulse race hours later, you know the feeling she’s naming. Communication, at its best, is chemistry.
Context matters with Lindbergh: a writer associated with interior life, solitude, and the hard-won clarity of reflection. Her work often asks what modern life does to attention and intimacy. In that light, the coffee metaphor reads like a defense of talk that refuses to be “well-adjusted.” It’s an argument for conversation as an event - exhilarating, disruptive, and worth the insomnia. The line flatters the listener while admitting the cost: connection can be energizing enough to steal your rest.
The intent is both romantic and disciplined. “Good” here isn’t small talk or polished rhetoric; it’s the rare exchange that actually lands, where another mind presses back and changes your internal temperature. The subtext is that real understanding is not neutral. It produces aftereffects: mental replay, new angles, the inability to return to your old complacency. If you’ve ever had a late-night conversation that made your pulse race hours later, you know the feeling she’s naming. Communication, at its best, is chemistry.
Context matters with Lindbergh: a writer associated with interior life, solitude, and the hard-won clarity of reflection. Her work often asks what modern life does to attention and intimacy. In that light, the coffee metaphor reads like a defense of talk that refuses to be “well-adjusted.” It’s an argument for conversation as an event - exhilarating, disruptive, and worth the insomnia. The line flatters the listener while admitting the cost: connection can be energizing enough to steal your rest.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Attributed to Anne Morrow Lindbergh; commonly cited in Gift from the Sea (1955). Often quoted as “Good conversation is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.” |
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