I always think, you know, it's like being on stage. You have to look your best. It's yer job. One last thought on dialogue. George V. Higgins in The Death of Eddie Coyle wrote a whole novel which was almost completely dialogue, and although it's a master at work, there are times when the book cried out for just a line or two of narrative.
Dialogue can open up a story and give a sense of air and space.
Our district was the Bottanic and we were working the level the miners called Beck's Heading. As the blast roared through, the boys loading trucks were all blown down and tumbled in the wind, none of them breathing, not one ever to be a father. But for us under, by chance, and some of the colliers also under, there was only the sudden emptiness of air, and a howl was all for us, like a wounded monster that rushed past us and away into the lampless dark. I may have fainted, I do not know, but my next recollection was the close breath of spearmint and the voice of Toop calming me, telling me to be still. And we must go out, boy, and walk.