Slavoj Žižek

'When, at a conference, a speaker asks me: "Did you like my talk?", how do I politely imply that it was boring and stupid? By saying: "It was interesting..." The paradox is that, if I say this [that the talk was boring and stupid] directly, I say more: my message will be perceived as a personal attack on the very heart of the speaker's being, as an act of hatred towards him, not simply as a dismissal of his talk - in this case, the speaker will have the right to protest: "If you really just wanted to say that my talk was boring and stupid, why didn't you simply say that it was interesting?"...'