“Any dialogue with Auden is a two-way street. He listens attentively and, sometimes much later, will take you up on something you said to him before. He anticipates what you were about to say and even mouths your lines, usually quite accurately, but he doesn’t speak them. If your punch line comes out all right—that is, the way he anticipated—his eyes flash an unspoken signal of well done! But when you cross him up, he either crinkles with delighted surprise or puckers with disappointment. Again, though, both reactions go unsaid.”