A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.

Capote’s remark plays on the idea that real conversation requires reciprocity: listening, responding, and allowing another mind to shape the exchange. By contrasting “dialogue” with “monologue,” he criticizes social talk that is really performance—people speaking to be heard rather than to understand. The sting of the final clause (“two intelligent talkers seldom meet”) suggests that even intelligence can become a barrier when it expresses itself as verbal dominance. The line is also a wry comment on literary and salon culture, where wit and self-display can crowd out genuine exchange. Its enduring appeal lies in how it flatters the ideal of conversation while skewering the habits that ruin it.