Quotes About Perspective

It is not possible to completely eliminate mediation between you as an observer and the history you are trying to understand.

If some really acute observer made as much of egotism as Freud has made of sex, people would forget a good deal about sex and find the explanation for everything in egotism.

I'm an observer - a watcher of movies my whole life.

As journalists, because you don't carry a gun, you sort of become this observer.

We had no money. My family was in Southie; I was in affluent Brookline. I don't know if it's my personality or the circumstance, but it all kind of led to this feeling of being an observer on the outside.

I think my sister loves being an observer more than I do.

A film based on my life would not be as interesting as my father. I have not lived a life as enriching as my father. I have only been observer to his life, so I think I'm the best person to make a documentary on him.

Who will observe the observers?

I feel like the writer observing the grief, but it is difficult to be detached from it.

My books are based on observing others, not myself.

The historian is, by definition, absolutely incapable of observing the facts which he examines.

I have understood by observing blind people that they are very confident. They don't see themselves as suffering from a disability.

The earlier you learn that you should focus on what you have, and not obsess about what you don't have, the happier you will be.

If you obsess about one thing, you're just going to miss the broader picture.

I think sometimes we seem to obsess on negativity.

I know some people obsess about their appearance but I don't - it's not something that bothers me.

I don't obsess over diet - life's too short to not eat the cake!

I'm not really obsessed with death.

Well let's see; I'm not obsessed with... I like Walt Disney except that you know, except for the horrible fascism. I love the art of it. I like a lot of things I don't agree with and that's one of them.

I don't understand the mentality of a rock fan, being obsessed with two or three songs from 25 years ago. I'm not that kind of a fan.

All of the things I used to obsess over, I'm no longer as obsessed with. I have new concerns but they're a little more existential or cosmic.

I don't fear death. I'm not obsessed with it the way everybody else seems to be.

Liberals, many of them, not all of them, but many of them are obsessed with race. They see everything through a filter of race.

It is probably true that I would not have had as many children or mothers in my books without being a mother with children. It is definitely true that I would not have written about the Civil War without having a little guy who was obsessed with it.