Quotes About Observation

When I'm photographing I see life.

I'm a bit like a sponge. When I'm not writing I absorb life like water. When I write I squeeze the sponge a little - and out comes, not water but ink.

I seem to have spent a good part of my life - probably too much – in just standing and staring.

Ah come on, these streams of light are not so subtle. All along the ditch, signs of life in sinking puddles!

You'll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.

She liked to imagine that when she passed the world looked after her, but she also knew how anonymous she was.

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.

I gained direct knowledge of the life of the poor in big towns: I have lived the narrowing mechanism of its conditioning and feared it.

Sadness comes, joy comes, and everything passes by. What remains always is the witness. The witness is beyond all polarities.

Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists called a rich emotional life always seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake.

I would advise him who wishes to imitate well, to look closely into life and manners, and thereby to learn to express them with truth.

My life is really a history of observing forms and taking in imagery. I don't mean in a photographic way, I mean in a way of feeling them structurally.

An insult comic is the title I was given. What I do is exaggeration. I make fun of people, at life, of myself and my surroundings.

Watch yourself as you go about your daily business and later reflect on what you saw, trying to identify the sources of distress in your life and thinking about how to avoid that distress.

Appreciate the moment.

A bachelor May thrive by observation on a little, A single life's no burthen: but to draw In yokes is chargeable, and will require A double maintenance.

Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of his inner life.

Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open.

The profoundly humorous writers are humorous because they are responsive to the hopeless, uncouth, concatenations of life.

Violet says, 'Are you okay now?' Her hair is windblow and her cheeks are flushed. Whather she likes it or not, she seemes happy. I take a good long look at her.

We can't always see what others don't want us to

Your identifier is you. I remember your eyes. Your mouth. The freckles on both cheeks that look like constellations. I know your smiles, at least three of them, and at least eight of your expressions, including the ones you only do with your eyes. If I could draw, I would draw you, and I wouldn't need to look at you to do it. Because your face is stuck in my mind. - Jack, Holding Up the Universe

I prayed maybe he hadn't seen me after all, that maybe he'd taken off after a sinner or a squirrel, instead.

We can't always see what others don't want us to. Especially when they go to great lengths to hide it.