Quotes About Observation

As a child and young adult, I delighted in being able to identify almost any wild plant or animal.

I knew that the most important thing a man has is in his head, and from a young age, I often studied the head structure of each person, hoping to crack his codes. I considered a high forehead a gift from God.

I was lucky enough to be surrounded by all sorts of animals from a very young age. My sister Jo was much more into the domestic animals - horses and things. I was absolutely fixated on the blackbirds, and the grass snakes in the manure heap and everything that surrounded us.

I was really interested in observing people. From a young age, I wouldn't listen to what an adult was saying - I was obsessed with other people's body language.

Men, who certainly possess not only the savvy but also the know-how to be funny, for some reason, are just not. I began to notice this at a pretty young age, and unfortunately, a lifetime of living - and not a little bit of regret - hasn't done much to convince me otherwise.

My microphone skills were developed at a young age watching my dad on the microphone. My dad DJ'ed bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, things of that nature.

Coach Spurrier was just an amazing competitor. I felt I learned to really love the competition of it all from watching him and being around him. All his assistant coaches were great recruiters, very professional in how they handled their business. So as a young guy, I got to see that all the time.

When I was young kid, I used to watch Jack Benny, and I thought the minimal aspect of what he did was revelatory. I loved Jack Benny.

I pick up on styles, way before they get popular, pretty much before young kids do. I see 'em coming.

The basic equation that mystified me as a young man was looking at guys who could actually get girls. I was always amazed, because they never seemed to care. I was like, 'How do they do that?'

During the session of the Supreme Court, in the village of -, about three weeks ago, when a number of people were collected in the principal street of the village, I observed a young man riding up and down the street, as I supposed, in a violent passion.

One of the rudest things you can do, food-wise, is to stare at someone in the act of eating. It draws attention to the unseemly fact that eating is a bodily function - like animals, we are trapped by our hungers, but we do our best to disguise them with such civilized props as menus and forks.

I like to describe my characters as though they were all trapped in a glass box.

For research, I like to go to the location of the places in the novels. The first thing that I do is involve my senses: I notice the smells; I open the trash cans and look at what people have thrown away.

When people endure a traumatic event, they are either defeated or made stronger. On Sept. 11, I told New Yorkers, 'I want you to emerge stronger from this.' My words were partially a hope and partially an observation that people in New York City handle big things better than little things. I could not be more proud of the way my city responded.

People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something.

I never travel without my sketch book.

Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist.

We need to be aware of all aspects: To check how they travel, how they eat, the competition conditions.

I... scout, I'm in all the film sessions, I'm in all the coaches meetings, I travel... I'm in on everything.

I prefer to travel by jeep, because you can see everyone clearly, and everyone can see you. Also, people are not able to come close to you easily when you are in a jeep.

When we see the shadow on our images, are we seeing the time 11 minutes ago on Mars? Or are we seeing the time on Mars as observed from Earth now? It's like time travel problems in science fiction. When is now; when was then?

You become a better writer by writing. You become a better travel writer by writing about travel.

My writing is a combination of three elements. The first is travel: not travel like a tourist, but travel as exploration. The second is reading literature on the subject. The third is reflection.