still on the topic of conversation:

10 Greatest Conversationalists of All Time (according to Utne.com)

Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.)

The Seven Sages of The Bamboo Grove (circa 250 C.E.)

Martin Luther (1483-1546) - known for his Table Talk

Catherine De Rambouillet (1588-1665)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)

Carl Rogers (1902-87)

Luba Petrova Harrington

Bill Moyers

Indigneous People (e.g. native Hawaiian ho'oponopono)