“I grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. For part of my life, I was living in Detroit, and I remember a friend of mine commenting she could always tell when I had been speaking to my mother because my New York accent had come back.”

American author and linguist

Deborah Tannen is an American author and linguist, associated with Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She is best known for You Just Don't Understand, and has 105 quotes on the site. She has also served as a McGraw Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University. Her work and academic roles place her in the study of language and communication, especially the ways people understand one another.