Quotes About Understanding

Listen to me. You are about to find out what it takes, how the world is, how it works and how it changes when you are a parent.

The two oldest fought in the First World War, the rest battled in the Second. They knew about Korea but not understanding what it was about didn't give it the respect—the seriousness—Frank thought it deserved. The veterans ranked battles and wars according to loss numbers: three thousand at this place, sixty thousand in the trenches, twelve thousand at another. The more killed, the braver the warriors, not the stupider the commanders.

What one puts up with in a friendship is determined by the emotional value of the relationship.

At first the people in the town were frightened; they knew Shadrack was crazy but that did not mean that he didn't have any sense or, even more important, that he had no power. [...] Once the people understood the boundaries and nature of his madness, they could fit him, so to speak, into the scheme of things.

He read greedily but understood selectively, choosing the bits and pieces of other men's ideas that supported whatever predilection he had

Above all he wanted to escape what he knew, escape the implications of what he had been told. And all he knew in the world about the world was what other people had told him.

I wish I'd a knowed more people. I would of loved 'em all. If I'd a knowed more, I would a loved more.

Two little girls who knew what nobody else in the world knew—how not to ask questions. How to believe what had to be believed. There was politeness in that reluctance and generosity as well. Is your mother sick too? No, she dances all night. Oh—and an understanding nod.

she was usually idling by the river bank, or gathering berries in a field when a someone appeared, with gentle and penetrating eyes, who—with no exchange of words—understood;

She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind." ? Toni Morrison, Beloved

Wherever he was—on the porch, at the kitchen table, in the garden, in the living room reading—that's where the power and deference were. He didn't exert power; he assumed it. And it was in part from knowing him that I felt I could understand and create the men in Ruby—their easy assumption of uncontested authority.

Hi." "Hi." "Waiting for your sister?" "Uh-huh." "Which way do you go home?" "Down Twenty-first Street to Broadway." "Why don't you go down Twenty-second Street?" "'Cause I live on Twenty-first Street." "Oh. I can walk that way, I guess. Partly, anyway." "Free country.

I hurt just like them white women. Just 'cause I wasn't hooping and hollering before didn't mean I wasn't feeling pain. What'd they think? That just 'cause I knowed how to have a baby with no fuss that my behind wasn't pulling and aching like theirs?

Who say they don't have no pain? Just 'cause she don't cry? 'Cause she can't say it, they think it ain't there? If they looks in her eyes and see them eyeballs lolling back, see the sorrowful look, they'd know.

I wish I'd a knowed more people. I would of loved 'em all. If I'd a knowed more, I would a loved more.

It took some time to figure out the motives for faking love—hers and theirs. Survival, she supposed, literal and emotional.

All this she saw in their eyes, and the sight filled her own with water warmer and much older than the rain.

There is really nothing more to say—except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.

When I teach creative writing, I always speak about how you have to learn how to read your work." —Toni Morrison

A person's love is only as good as the person; a stupid person loves stupidly, a violent man loves violently.

Anna clung to him while he explained that the scorpion's tail was up because it was just as scared of her as she was of it. In Detroit, watching baby-faced police handling guns, she remembered the scorpion's rigid tail.

Oh, sure. You have to know what's wrong before you can find what's right.

Adults do not talk to us—they give us directions. They issue orders without providing information. When we trip and fall down they glance at us; if we cut or bruise ourselves, they ask us are we crazy. When we catch colds, they shake their heads in disgust at our lack of consideration.

If I had to answer the question, What is the most important ability for the actor? . . . the answer would emphatically be listening. Lest there be some misunderstanding, let me define what I mean by listening. I am talking about listening with all the senses.