It can be the best of relationships and the worst of relationships - often at the same time. The bond between a mother and daughter is one of the strongest, but it's also among the most complicated.

It's our tendency to approach every problem as if it were a fight between two sides. We see it in headlines that are always using metaphors for war. It's a general atmosphere of animosity and contention that has taken over our public discourse.

The key to conversation at work is flexibility and understanding how what you say might be perceived by others.

All conversation, in addition to whatever else it does, displays, and asks for recognition of, our competence.

Relationships are made of talk - and talk is for girls and women.

In an ongoing relationship, each current criticism packs the punches of all the others that have gone before.

All communication is more or less cross-cultural. We learn to use language as we grow up, and growing up in different parts of the country, having different ethnic, religious, or class backgrounds, even just being male or female - all result in different ways of talking.