Quotes About Observation

We would be driving down the street in a place like Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and started to see, my gosh, the only people that have shoes are men. Why does that woman have a baby in her belly and one on her back, and she's carrying a huge load of bananas? You start to ask these questions.

Show me one guy or woman as funny as Rodney Dangerfield or as good as George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, or Joan Rivers. There are a lot of good comics out there, no doubt, but as far as the quality of the comics goes, I think what you have is a bunch of situational comics.

I have a theory that women are generally given space and appointed to jobs when the situation is tough. I've observed that in many instances. In times of crisis, women eventually are called upon to sort out the mess, face the difficult issues and be completely focused on restoring the situation.

I think women are excellent social critics.

Every day I fantasise about situations and little themes I see in front of me that would make a good beginning of a story. But one has to be disciplined and just sit down and do it.

With 'The Chi,' it's me observing my own city and also pulling some things from themes I've dealt with in my life.

You have so much more time to observe and learn with a documentary because of the time between the shoots. You get a much deeper understanding of day-to-day life and its themes. It's also much more of a mess after three years; you have to comb it out carefully and see what fits together and makes sense.

Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them.

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

If you can't tell a spoon from a ladle, then you're fat!

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

A theoretical system does not merely state facts which have been observed and that logically deducible relations to other facts which have also been observed.

It is a test of true theories not only to account for but to predict phenomena.

Theories come and go, but fundamental data always remain the same.

Humans are pattern-seeking animals, consciously and subconsciously imposing designs and theories on to past events. We do this in both our private lives and when looking at history.

The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persist in doing so, generation after generation, through all changes of opinion and detail, is the one that must rule all observation.

In so far as such a theory is empirically correct it will also tell us what empirical facts it should be possible to observe in a given set of circumstances.

My theory was that what I had to do was make a study of human behavior.

To me, what makes physics physics is that experiment is intimately connected to theory. It's one whole.

I never had the time or luxury to think about inventing my own colour theory. When colour came, I was interested in expressing things that happened around me in time.

My theory is that comedy comes from little people.

There can be theory but, you know, the problem is you've got to be able to test it. So theories are one thing, testing is another.

Darwin didn't walk around the Galapagos and come up with the theory of evolution. He was exploring, collecting, making observations. It wasn't until he got back and went through the samples that he noticed the differences among them and put them in context.

If anyone would have been paying serious attention to my puppet shows, I would have been sent to therapy very young.