Quotes About Perspective

I know I love a novel with an unreliable narrator, and I think many readers do as well.

I write unreliable narrators because - paradoxically - they're the most honest, true-to-life kind there is.

One of the fun things about unreliable narrators is they can be funny. You can admire things about them and laugh with them.

The unreliable narrator is an odd concept. The way I see it, we're all unreliable narrators of our lives who usually have absolute trust in our self-told stories. Any truth is, after all, just a matter of perspective.

I first read 'Lolita' when I was 16, which I think is a little bit young. But it was a thrilling and disturbing read because it was the first time I really sensed that you could have an unreliable narrator, that you didn't have to sort of tell the truth in a narrative, that there could be something deeper and richer and more complicated going on.

We are unreliable narrators - all of us.

The truth of the matter is, 'uncomfortable' does not equal 'unsafe,' and 'disagreement' does not equal 'danger.'

Telescopes and microscopes bring to our view the otherwise unseen and unknown.

You can be selfish by being too unselfish at times.

If you remain unsettled by a piece of writing, it means you are not watching the story from the outside; you've already taken a step towards it.

Why should American atrocities be merely unsettling, but a trip to Hanoi unconscionable?

What makes me laugh about politics, sometimes, is it seems like once we get to a point where our problems are seemingly unsolvable, it's because we're looking through a wrong point of view. If we turn the thing on its head, then maybe we might see it differently.

Teen movies often have an unspoken underlying premise in which high school is seen as less serious than the adult world. But when your head is encased in that microcosm it's the most serious time of your life.

It's amazing how these little guys can say things that a mortal human could never get away with. There's some sort of unspoken license... when outlandish things come out of an inanimate object, somehow it equals humor.

I want a nonfiction that explores our shifting, unstable, multiform, evanescent experience in and of the world.

Look, a lot of directors were actors, even if they were unsuccessful actors which I think is helpful. I think it's a really helpful thing for a director to have experienced that. It helps you know how to talk to actors and how to get what you need from them.

I wasn't making any money, but I didn't feel unsuccessful because of that. You can do that in New York but not in Hollywood. In Hollywood, it is how much money you make.

When I had my baby, it really freed my mind. No matter how well you do or how unsuccessful you are, there's still somebody who thinks you're the best in the world.

We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When you have it, you don't notice it.

You don't appreciate life until you get to the other side. Like lying in a hospital bed.

I was against gay marriage until I realized I didn't have to get one.

One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other than human.

Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.

Call no man happy until he is dead, but only lucky.