 John Stoker, author of the book Overcoming Fake Talk, says there is a way to keep a difficult conversation what he calls above the line, meaning focused on the issue at hand. The easiest way to lift a conversation above the line is to ask questions for two reasons. One, it forces people out of the unconscious and subconscious part of their brain. They have to go to the conscious part of their brain to answer the question. And the more questions you ask, the more it communicates to them that you care about the answer.