Silence is therefore important even in the life of faith and in our deepest encounter with God. We cannot always be talking, praying in words, cajoling, reasoning, or keeping up a kind of devout background music. Much of our well-meant interior religious dialogue is, in fact, a smoke screen and an evasion.
— Thomas Merton, Thomas Merton: Essential Writings by Thomas Merton, Christine M. Bochen, editor