Quotes About Understanding

I'm exploring the long history of women, first of all, being silenced and, secondly, not being taken seriously in the political and public sphere. It's a call to action through understanding and through looking at ourselves again and trying to reformulate the whole question of women and power.

Dissolving differences has always been an important motive for my writing, right from 'The Mistress of Spices.'

If I'm interviewing someone I need to know everything about them - I do these massive spider diagrams. Everything under different categories, and certain questions in other categories.

What I'm attempting to do is to show people that if I can spend some time with very dangerous spiders and snakes and scorpions, then maybe they'll feel different about the spiders and snakes they find around their areas. I don't need people to keep them as pets. I just like them to be respectful and see that everything in nature has its place.

I'd like to state that Spike Lee is not saying that African American culture is just for black people alone to enjoy and cherish. Culture is for everybody.

Spike Lee listens a lot. He's one of the quietest creative people I've ever met.

The way I become friends with somebody is a slow process. You can't just spill your guts and tell them everything about yourself and expect them to listen and understand you because you don't know them. It's the same thing with a relationship.

Once we understand just how to control genes, we have the potential for spinal cord regeneration, bone regeneration, and so on. It might also give us plumper chickens.

Being from the countryside gave me a spine, and it's why I'm so accepting - I don't judge people for how they look or how they talk... I just accept everyone.

I think Obama and the economists around him have a very sophisticated understanding of both globalization and the technology revolution and the impact they're having on the world economy and they way they're creating these winner-take-all spirals.

The older I get, the more I realize how rare it is to meet a kindred spirit.

Don't organize in the spirit of antagonism; that should be beneath your consideration.

In any area of the U.N. we... have to agree on certain language that can represent the same spirit, but that can be accepted by everyone.

The spirit world doesn't admit to communicating with me, so it's fairly even.

I do have friends that are Republicans, and we have very spirited conversations on a whole range of issues. I am often baffled by why they are Republicans, but I enjoy the dialogue and can move beyond politics to find common ground in my personal relationships.

I think when people hear your music, sometimes they get deeply attached to it and think they know something about you, that you're kindred spirits or something.

Reading was not just an escape or a Band-Aid; it was a deep form of feeling seen and recognized, and being able to see and recognize other kindred spirits. My dad was a writer, too, which also likely had something to do with that.

Religious celebrations, and the good will, high spirits and generosity that mark them, are wonderful occasions for understanding the potential of 'everyday multiculturalism', and how people from diverse faiths can connect and show they care, rather than go down parallel, sometimes hostile, roads.

A child does not understand the spiritual forces coming against him, so it is up to the parents to fight the spiritual battles and keep Satan out of the child's life.

As an actor it's your job to empathise with your character regardless of whether they have a different sexual orientation, spiritual beliefs, or anything.

Sometimes people's spiritual ideas become fixed and they use them against those who don't share their beliefs - in effect, becoming fundamentalist. It's very dangerous - the finger of righteous indignation pointing at someone who is identified as bad or wrong.

The best way to create emotional or spiritual distance between me and another person is for them to come up to me and go, 'yaassssss.'

Love is a spiritual grace. We learn it from God.

I grew up with a sense of music being a very spiritual experience while playing in church and with parents who were socially aware, always teaching me to look beyond the obvious in understanding how the world works.