"Never forget the power of silence, that massively disconcerting pause which goes on and on and may at last induce an opponent to babble and backtrack nervously"
About this Quote
The intent is practical and faintly predatory. “Never forget” reads like field advice from someone who’s watched interviews, press scrums, and political confrontations up close. Journalists learn quickly that the best quote often arrives after the subject thinks the moment is over. That “massively disconcerting pause” is the reporter’s version of leaving the mic on: an invitation for the nervous mind to fill space, and in filling it, reveal something unpolished. The subtext is that people don’t just speak to communicate; they speak to relieve discomfort, to regain status, to prove they’re not losing.
Context matters: Morrow comes out of a late-20th-century media ecosystem where public figures are coached, messaging is airtight, and every sentence is a liability. In that world, silence becomes one of the few tools that can puncture rehearsed narrative. It forces an opponent to choose between enduring tension or buying relief at the cost of coherence. The quote’s sly cynicism is its point: truth doesn’t always emerge through eloquence; sometimes it leaks out because someone couldn’t stand the quiet.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Morrow, Lance. (2026, January 15). Never forget the power of silence, that massively disconcerting pause which goes on and on and may at last induce an opponent to babble and backtrack nervously. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-forget-the-power-of-silence-that-massively-99016/
Chicago Style
Morrow, Lance. "Never forget the power of silence, that massively disconcerting pause which goes on and on and may at last induce an opponent to babble and backtrack nervously." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-forget-the-power-of-silence-that-massively-99016/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Never forget the power of silence, that massively disconcerting pause which goes on and on and may at last induce an opponent to babble and backtrack nervously." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-forget-the-power-of-silence-that-massively-99016/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.






