What is like
pulling teeth?
When you talk to someone who is not very forthcoming;
you want information, you want answers, but he clams up.
Your interlocutor does not return the conversational
ball, and you have to keep picking it up and pitching it.
Your every question elicits monosyllablic responses,
so that you have to frame each question exactly enough
to allow those single syllables to mean something to
you.