Quotes About Complexity

As human beings, we tend to describe our vast universe and complicated emotions by comparing them to things we already know and comprehend. And many of us suffer by comparison.

We invent these systems with the aim of ensuring fairness, she said, and yet the human situation is so complex that it always evades our attempts to encompass it.

The problem was, the more complex he allowed his vision of life to become, the further he removed himself from his own capacity to act.

As far as he knew a problem couldn't be solved simply by infinitely restating it, unless you relied on infinity itself to break certain factors down.

What was striking was the sheer negative capability of their former intimacy:

And I realised eventually, I said, that it could never be resolved, not so long as the aim was to establish the truth, for there was no single truth any more, that was the point. There was no longer a shared vision, a shared reality even. Each of them saw things now solely from his own perspective: there was only point of view.

We were all monsters and bastards, and we were all beautiful.

I gave you two choices as a test: there are never just two choices. That is a lie to keep you from thinking too deeply.

Some men are deeply likable but have attitudes I don't like. Does that mean I should completely dismiss them? It's like saying: if someone votes Tory can you like them? And, yes, I can. I have friends who vote Tory, and I'm appalled, but that's not to say they're not great people in so many other ways. We have a tendency to oversimplify things.

The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that.

When you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

Sometimes, we only get to know someone as one aspect of who they are. Then you start peeling back the layers and understanding more and more about who they are - their vulnerabilities, their fears, their joys, all those other words that equal humanity.

We, as extremely complex creatures, desperately need to know this story of how the universe creates complexity and why complexity means vulnerability and fragility.

I like characters who have blind spots and are full of themselves, but there also needs to be vulnerability.

I like characters who have two different things going on, whether it is Robin from 'Top Of The Lake' having that strength juxtaposed with the vulnerability and being in pain, or whether it is Peggy from 'Mad Men' with her naivety and her sort of idiocy at times, combined with her intelligence and courage really to do what she did at that time.

There's something that's sexy about a guy who has the strength to kill somebody, but is also vulnerable enough to be in love. It's just those two sides - like, I don't know why, but women for some reason aren't attracted to normal guys, like, guys who are in between.

The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are.

I think that I'm shy and I judge myself. But at the same time, I also have big contradictions. I can be sometimes sure of myself as well. I'm not always fragile and vulnerable. I can feel tough and strong.

The more sophisticated we get, the more advanced our buildings and vehicles become, the more vulnerable we are.

We might have to broaden our scope of how we think about where women are vulnerable, because different things make different women vulnerable.

I'd always been fascinated by people who allow themselves to be so rude and irritated and foul-mouthed and hostile, but usually you can sense there's something vulnerable beneath them - a shield they use to protect that vulnerable side. Finally, when they expose that soft spot, it's kind of touching.

Nobody's just arrogant. I've met people who are embattled and dismissive, but when you get to know them, you find that they're vulnerable - that that hauteur or standoffishiness is because they're pedaling furiously underneath.

I wouldn't want to play a character that knew everything and knew where to go. It is much more interesting playing a character that is vulnerable trying to be strong. It makes for better TV.

How could you not love Norman Mailer? He was a total chauvinist, but also so vulnerable.