Quotes About Observation

My goats are not contemplative, accepting, or introspective. They are the Greek chorus of my farm, sometimes of my life. They watch me closely and remind me that I am foolish.

I see people sometimes who remind me of my narrators.

All the time I see things that remind me very much of the 1930s.

Writing is, by its nature, interior work. So being forced to be around people is a great gift for a novelist. You get to be reminded, daily, of how people think, how they speak, how they live; the things they worry about, the things they hope for, the things they fear.

If it wasn't for my primary school teacher reminding me to be observant, I may not have had the inspiration to think of my invention.

Christopher Isherwood's eponymous character in 'Mr Norris Takes the Train' reminds me of Boris Johnson, who seems to have stumbled and bumbled into power.

There's no way to remove the observer - us - from our perceptions of the world.

I pride myself on having a journalistic remove.

People never know what's going on while it's happening. You think, during the Renaissance, people called it 'The Renaissance'?

Shakespeare is renewed each time you see it or read it. I've seen 'Midsummer Night's Dream' so many times, and each time it's a little different, or a different line leaps out at me. It's like re-reading a good book over and over, always noticing something you hadn't seen the time before - and that's rare.

I would watch movies on the couch in my house. If I saw a scene played by a woman or a man - it doesn't matter - a scene I really liked, I would right away run to the mirror and repeat it.

I know little stories that happen to people around me, and I can repeat that in a way that has some color.

Writing is my way of diving deep into an issue. My approach is to watch, read and listen - sometimes for years - in order to grasp the dynamics, resistance and patterns of thought that repeat and impede progress and breakthrough.

On 'Mad Men,' I have a bit of an advantage because I know who gets better as they repeat a scene and who's best at the beginning.

I like giving the audience a lot of stuff to look at, and rewards for repeated viewings and paying attention.

Much can often be learned by the repetition under different conditions, even if the desired result is not obtained.

I feel like every repetition, every game, every practice that I'm allowed to watch, I'm picking up some small piece of information, a nuance about the game or a coach's philosophy.

Sometimes I write captions on the in-flight magazines and then replace them in the seat pocket.

One of the things you do, when you have a scene or whatever it is you're doing, I replay that scene in my head and pick different positions to watch it from in my head.

Fortunately, I've done so many interviews that I've become very good at detecting when someone is giving a less-than-candid reply.

Every comic can report a few 'gift from the gods' moments.

History, like journalism, is ever a journey outwards, and you must report back what you find and no more.

I feel like my job is to look at the world and to report what I see, to write what I see as honestly and directly as I can. I don't want to cut it or make it easy, but be as direct as I can.

Part of our pedagogy is, you report on what's going on in your neighborhood and your city.