Quotes About Observation

One of the reasons I live abroad is because, as a writer, I can see England better when removed from it.

I always have a pad of paper and a pencil within reach, to catch on the wing this turn of phrase which strikes me as felicitous, that idea which I hope to be able to examine more closely in the light of day.

I consider myself to have been the bridge between the shotgun and the binoculars in bird watching. Before I came along, the primary way to observe birds was to shoot them and stuff them.

next, showed up for work in the morning, washed the dishes, fed the dog, settled down in front of the TV to gaze at the lives of others, imaginary and real, as we plodded along toward old age. On

I studied him the way I studied all the people in my life, noticing the changes of his mood, the times when the edge of his patience came into view, even small physical details like the sickle-shaped scar on the top of his right forearm and the small flourish he made with his hand whenever he set down a tool, as if he was brushing bad air away from it.

The traveler sees what he sees," wrote G. K. Chesterton in the 1920s, "the tourist sees what he has come to see.

The traveler was active, he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience," Daniel Boorstin opined in 1961. "The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him.

We see as we are," said

Nevertheless, it's important, even on a personal level, to not just look at things as we travel but to see things for what they are.

He observed Morel with a cameraman's cold, professional stare, trying to decide why he found the man so French; he decided that it was a certain dark cheerfulness, a mixture of anger and irony, the voice and its drawling Parisian accent, and the line of the mouth which somehow always seemed to call for a Gauloise bleue.

Când c?l?toresc împreun?, oamenii afl? o gr?mad? de lucruri unii despre alÈ›ii, se descoper?. E drept c? majoritatea r?mân în picioare în lift, f?r? s? se priveasc?, verticali È™i È›epeni, pentru a nu p?rea c? invadeaz? teritoriul celorlalÈ›i. Lifturile sunt niste cluburi englezeÈ™ti, numai c? se st? în picioare, cu opriri la etaje.

Avea una dintre acele foarte vechi priviri de italian care-È™i cunoaÈ™te lumea. E o privire gurmand? care te înv?luie ca s? te înghit? mai bine.

People often told him that Lan was very beautiful, but Pei had no opinion about that. He had never really noticed other women, and to say that a woman was or was not beautiful meant looking at her with an experienced eye.

The artist has to be something like a whale swimming with his mouth wide open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs.

Are there girls in this movie?' 'Sure. There are always girls in movies. There aren't any movies without girls.

of the horses tethered to the hitching rack was real, the other a fairly believable robot sim. "You can tell when they crap," said a bearded old-timer who was leaning next to the saloon's louvered swinging doors. "Which is real, you mean?" "Yup." He winked at Zack, returned his attention to rolling a cigarette. "See, you can fake a horse pretty easy. But faking horseshit is a real challenge. Somewheres in there is maybe a moral.

In the 1950s, the Southern social order was as plain to the eye as charcoal in a snowbank. From the perspective of a small fair-skinned boy, it was about as much a topic for considered thought as breathing in and out.

I just give the class what I understand of what it wants, and keep an eye on it to see what it wants next.

It's ever been the way of the man of science or philosophy. Most folks stay in the dark and then complain they can't see nothing." – Snipes (185)

You men notice so little, Pemberton. Physical strength is your gender's sole advantage.

Readers want to know a few things right up front, like what the weather is like and the lay of the land, the color of that lake, or the steep pitch of that steeple. Now whether or not these things have one iota to do with your story doesn't concern the reader.

Once you've sharpened your observation skills and taken notes about what you've seen, you need to create the little world in your mind where your story will take place. Because if it doesn't exist there, it won't stand a chance of existing in your reader's mind.

Readers want to know a few things right up front, like what the weather is like and the lay of the land, the color of that lake, or the steep pitch of that steeple.

But some actors I have met possess an intelligence that I can only dream of. It's about character, it's about behavior. They understand things about people that I simply don't see.