It's dangerous to generalise about sound because many of its effects work through association. These can be universal: we all instinctively associate any sudden, unexpected noise with danger and react with a release of fight/flight hormones, while most people find sounds like gentle rainfall or birdsong calming and reassuring.

Music is designed to be listened to, so it's calling for attention all the time, syphoning off our very limited auditory bandwidth and elbowing aside our ability to listen to the voice in our head we need when we're doing mental work.

I've heard many reports of police attending scenes of domestic violence where they've had to turn off music and televisions and radios. Noise tends to drive us a bit crazy.

In the U.K., architects train for five years, and they spend one day on sound.

We all like to look good. However, this basic human desire can often get in the way of our listening and our speaking. This tendency often evinces itself in two simple words: 'I know.' But if I know everything, what can I learn? Absolutely nothing.

The need to be right can arise from a fear of being disrespected. Or it may come out of the fear of being seen as we really are: as flawed human beings who are perfectly imperfect and full of contradictions and confusions.

While interrupting is not always wrong, it should never become a habit.

You or I never buy an Intel product explicitly, and yet their sonic logo is far better known and more powerful than its visual equivalent. It's probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Conscious listening is very largely overlooked in the mainstream of education. It's such an important skill in life. And yet we expect children to pick it up from home or from peers informally.

We experience every space in five senses, so it's strange that architects design just for the eyes.

Sound in a space affects us profoundly. It changes our heart rate, breathing, hormone secretion, brain waves. It affects our emotions and our cognition.

People often mistake our mission at The Sound Agency for a crusade for silence, but actually, silence is in many ways just as bad as too much noise.

Most people think it's a linear relationship: I speak, you listen. Actually, it's a circle, because the way you listen affects how I speak, and the way I speak affects the way you listen.

If you want to be listened to, the first step is to listen well yourself.

You can't truly listen to someone and do anything else at the same time.

Music is made to be listened to, so you immediately have an issue where you're playing it in the background like wallpaper. Music doesn't want to behave like that.

Retailers don't think about why they have music. There are a number of issues. It can be very powerful in the right place, where it is played appropriately.

Without our natural soundscape, we are making ourselves tired, stressed, and frightened all at the same time.

By starting to pay attention to our natural soundscapes, businesses can reduce staff turnover, increase productivity, and increase profits.

Most of us walk around with our ears switched off because so much noise is unpleasant.

Unlike so many other sounds, there's no maximum exposure to birdsong.

Sound changes moods, yet most of the sound around us is unplanned.

I have visited a number of boutique hotels where you feel there is a little bit of self-indulgence going on.

If we teach our children how to listen properly to the world - and especially to each other - they will understand the consequences of their own sound and be far more responsible in making it.

Noise is the number one problem in modern offices. A big part of addressing this issue is making sure unwanted sound from adjacent spaces doesn't intrude or interfere.

It's time architects start designing for our ears as well as our eyes.

When you hear a child's voice, it will have that immediate effect of putting you in mind of looking after children.

Someone else's paper is fascinating until you buy it yourself. Then it loses its appeal, and you have to pass it on to someone else to reinvigorate it.

This devaluing of listening is handed down from generation to generation. There are many children who don't have the experience of being listened to by their parents.

If we're not listened to, then that doesn't create a desire inside us to listen to others. Societally, we don't value it.

As parents, we tend to be in Tell rather than Listen mode.