Two Reasons for Difficulty in a Social Setting

I'm reading a book right now that I was given for Christmas, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. The book is really a conventional romance novel with a familiar plot, but it does have some descriptive touches, along with a few quirks, that are more unusual. The point of this post, however, is to quote a passage that, while not particularly original, is one with which I strongly identify:

"Claire felt a familiar anxiousness, or maybe it was a learned anxiousness... Claire didn't socialize when she worked--she communicated. She said what needed to be said or she didn't say anything at all. Unfortunately, this didn't translate well into a social setting. It made her seem rude and standoffish, when it was only a sincere and desperate effort not to do or say anything foolish (203)."

This goes along well (as well as contrasting nicely) with a statement Elizabeth Bennett makes to Mr. Darcy, as they dance and the Netherfield Ball in Pride and Prejudice, that I have often attempted quoting:

"We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity...(221 in my copy of the complete novels)."