Quotes About Observation

Or perhaps it is just that George has spent proper time looking at this one painting and that every single experience of looking at something would be this good if she devoted time to everything she looked at.

Winter. It made things visible.

Always be reading something, he said. Even when we're not physically reading. How else will we read the world? Think of it as a constant.

its small squares of fast-passing light, the early evening windows of the lives of hundreds of others.

because looking is just the start of understanding, just its surface, the top layer of any understanding, the girl is saying

See how it's deep in our animal nature, Daniel said. Not to see what's happening right in front of our eyes.

He also knows he is and will be being recorded by CCTV cameras on both sides of the station. He knows these are the kinds of cameras that don't know anything, don't show anything beyond surface. He knows that what they do is the stupid new way of knowing everything.

Oamenii treceau pe trotuarul de deasupra. M? priveau ca ?i cum a? fi fost nebun?. Un pesc?ru? patrula pe autostrad?. M? privea ca ?i cum a? fi fost nebun?.

She came right up to the side of the building as if she were coming round its corner and simply sort of reading the sign because that's what she was, a girl reading the world.

It is possible, he said, to be in love not with someone but with their eyes. I mean, with how eyes that aren't yours let you see where you are, who you are.

Do things just go away? her mother says. Do things that happened not exist, or stop existing, just because we can't see them happening in front of us? They do when they're over, George says. And what about the things we watch happening right in front of us and still can't really see? her mother says.

Hello, he said. What you reading? Elisabeth showed him her empty hands. Does it look like I'm reading anything? she said. Always be reading something, he said. Even when we're not physically reading. How else will we read the world? Think of it as a constant.

And he looked at the oil out of coffee beans, and at frogspawn, and, and anyway now we know what microbes are and what cells are and that the naked human eye can only see a fraction of what is actually there. And that this - (the spill of water on the table) – is full of life we can't see, and just because we can't see it doesn't mean it isn't. It really really is.

No era viejo, ella había acertado. Nadie verdaderamente viejo se sentaría con las piernas cruzadas o abrazándose las rodillas de ese modo. Los viejos solo podían sentarse como si los hubiese paralizado una pistola paralizante).

The world is full of people looking for meaning in the shape of a bird not native to this country turning up in this country after all.

It is possible, he said, to be in love not with someone but with their eyes. I mean, with how eyes that aren't yours let you see where you are, who you are.

After this painting they look flat and old-fashioned, as if they're stale dramas and pretending to be real. This one at least admits the whole thing's a performance. Or perhaps it is just that George has spent proper time looking at this one painting and that every single experience of looking at something would be this good if she devoted time to everything she looked at.

And which comes first? her unbearable mother is saying. What we see or how we see?

Later that night, when she was home and falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV, Elisabeth would remember seeing his eyes open, and how it was like that moment when you just happen to see the streetlights come on and it feels like you're being given a gift, or a chance, or that you yourself've been singled out and chosen by the moment.

It's funny to be sitting on such an uncommunal communal chair.

The nettles say nothing. The seeds at the tops of the grass stems say nothing. The little white flowers on the tops of their stalks, she doesn't know what they are but they're saying their fresh nothing. The buttercups say it merrily. The gorse says it unexpectedly, a bright yellow nothing, smooth and soft and delicate against the mute green nothing of its barbs.

Schoolteachers can be some hard-eyed people, with talkin eyes; they mouth sayin one thing and them eyes be screamin another.

They pick all of us out, and then they decide, they computerize, decide if they like it or don't like it, and then they go home, and then they come back again because they're not sure what they saw.

understood the world as much as possible through description rather than judgment,