"It'd be pretty shitty of me to come all the way over here for the purpose of making fun of you," he says, sipping at his tea, noticing the way Ned hasn't touched his, and realizing again just how shaken up he really is. "And trying to change anyone's mind is pointless -- unless it comes to trying to get someone to approve of my idea for an ad, in which case I'll argue for hours. And as for explaining yourself, well..."

He tries to think of how to phrase it in a way that will make it clear both that he's interested in the potential explanation, but doesn't want to get it out of Ned in an unpleasant, bullying way. He himself has been alternately cajoled and threatened into trying to explain how his own mind, his own neuroses work, and it's never been effective. If anything, it's just made him distrust people more, made him highly skeptical of anyone who pretends to want to understand something emotional. Unlike Ned, however, he tends to share these things freely anyway.

"I'm curious," he finally says, setting down his cup, "But you're obviously not feeling comfortable. It's like telling someone who's panicking to calm down, you know? That's absolutely the worst thing you can say, because then they panic that they can't calm down. So trying to get you to explain yourself would probably just make you feel worse, because you'd be worried that I thought what you were saying was ridiculous, and that'd just add to the shitty way you're already feeling."