Quotes About Listening

I've directed a fair amount of television series - so I'm always trying to learn new things. One episode was all hand-held and I'm trying to get better at when you should do things and when you should just shut up and watch what the people are saying.

There is one crucial rule that must be followed in all creative meetings. Never speak first. At least at the start, your job is to shut up.

I think our sense as actors of what we've just done - whether or not it be in an audition - is usually really not connected to any truth. I'm always asking for more takes and more goes. I think I just need to shut up and listen.

In general, being likeable is more about being interested - rather than interesting. Indeed, a good way to convince someone that you are an awesome conversationalist is to simply shut up and let the other person talk.

A lot of actors, you can't get them to shut up. Instead of listening and watching, they're always telling you something.

As an actor, your best help is just to shut up and get out of the way.

I know to shut up when I don't know what I'm talking about.

Judi Dench told me to shut up once. I was probably going on and on about something, in the way that I do sometimes, so she was being a good friend.

People can get into very bad habits of arguing ideas and shutting them down.

I think the key to improv is always listening. It's embracing. It's positivity. It's hearing things and not shutting them down.

I think it's important to have conversation about things instead of shutting things down.

Talk about your problems. There's no need to feel shy. It's always good to talk about issues that concern you.

I actually think of myself as quite a shy person, although I know I give the impression of someone much more confident. I think what I do have is a capacity to listen to the other, even if the other is an opponent. That leads, in all senses of the word, to an engagement.

My siblings weren't playing music; I was the only one who wanted to buy a guitar and was listening on headphones the whole time.

I get sick when I think about someone going to iTunes and downloading two songs off our album. It's not meant to be listened to that way.

Hear the other side.

My dad was a high school and college coach, and in my house my dad muted sideline reporters because he wasn't interested in what they had to say.

I'm interested in everything about people. Not just, 'what do you do for a living?' but I want to know about their fears and sadnesses and listen to their regrets, both sides of it, the happy and the sad.

Never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight; if you can hear them at all, they are too loud.

We lack social awareness because we're so focused on what we're going to say next - and how what other people are saying affects us - that we completely lose sight of other people. This is a problem because people are complicated. You can't hope to understand someone until you focus all of your attention in his or her direction.

I hang out and sign records for an hour or two hours every night, and I like to hear as many people's stories as I can, because if somebody wants to share their story with me, I want to honor that.

That would be such a life-changing thing, for us all to know that there are other beings out there who we could potentially communicate with, or maybe we are listening to a signal that they transmitted hundreds of millennia ago.

We can't ignore signals that our bodies are giving us when something is wrong.

Slouching or leaning back may send the wrong signals. When you sit down for a formal interview, lean forward to show interest and active listening.