Quotes About Observation

People are looking at you, Katniss. You've given them an opportunity." ~Gale Hawthorne

Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.

If you really want to judge of the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one time or another. Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man. Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is the really great man whose character is great always, the same wherever he be.

As part of being in the industry you do watch what others are doing. I think that's something good to do.

You cannot simply put something new into a place. You have to absorb what you see around you, what exists on the land, and then use that knowledge along with contemporary thinking to interpret what you see.

I'll always learn something new, usually the small things that people overlook, those small nuances that can make you great.

The best place to learn acting is your own home. Everyday there is a new drama and every day you get to learn something new in your own house. So I have learned a lot from there.

On the day-long follows that I used to do with mothers and their offspring - these chimp families that I knew so well - there was hardly a day when I didn't learn something new about them.

I like movies where you feel like you're going into another world, and no matter how many times you watch it, you're gonna see something new in that world. That level of detail really inspires me.

You learn something new on every film.

I love archival films very much. I spent thousands of hours watching archive footage. Every time I see it, I see something. Sometimes I think I know this footage, but two years later, I see it again, and I see something new.

Whether you're going to a museum or a flea market or flipping through a book, always be on the lookout for something special.

I'm a chronicler of Negroland, a participant-observer, an elegist, dissenter, and admirer; sometime expatriate, ongoing interlocutor.

What people call serendipity sometimes is just having your eyes open.

Silence is sometimes the severest criticism.

Sometimes you lose sight of what's going on around you.

I don't think exactly like a professional economist. I think about economics and economic ideas, but somewhat like an outsider.

You have to have a somewhat cold heart to be a writer.

The thing is David is also aware of everything and it's not like you're going somewhere the director is not.

I am not somebody who meets a man or a woman somewhere and feels like that is an incredible character that I must write into a play.

I'd quite like to be in Caligula's court - living in the back room somewhere and just being able to observe.

I'm not an analyzer. I've got a son that analyzes everything and everybody. But I don't analyze people.

Honestly, I get character ideas from the most inane places. Sometimes a song will give me an idea. Sometimes I will just hear a snippet of conversation that ends up having nothing to do with the book that emerges.

I'm still learning a lot as a songwriter. I try to write down and make a note of ideas that I cross paths with on a day-to-day basis, whether it be a conversation or something I hear on the radio, seeing a movie, or just thoughts in my head as I'm walking down the street.