Quotes About Empathy

God chooses to arrive among the poor and the insignificant and the politically awkward, so what are we missing when we overlook them?

I didn't get bullied any more than anybody else. I think I got bullied more for being poor than being gay. But no more than any other kid. And I'm sure that I did my fair share of picking on other kids, too. We're all humans.

The hopeless grief of those poor colored people affected me more than almost anything else.

I'm from Naples. I was born in a poor neighborhood and I always, in my heart, felt like it would be amazing to be able to adopt a child from Naples. I could give someone the opportunity I had. I would love to give back in that way and pay it forward.

I often think that people who write a lot about poverty need to go and spend more time with poor people.

The number one person who needs my books is me. I'm not some sort of disinterested guru who has worked life out and is handing things out to the poor people who might not have life worked out.

I think the point about ActionAid is what it's asking people to do is engage with poor people in developing countries and understand what their lives are like and understand how the way we live our lives impacts on theirs.

You know the funny thing, I don't get along with rich people. I get along with the middle class and the poor people better than I get along with the rich people.

I have poor people skills, and I cannot become a minister.

I get maximum satisfaction in seeing the happiness of poor people.

There's more poor people in this country than there are rich, and I stick up for the poor people.

My goal really was to make pop music feel as human as possible.

At a horror movie, you can see other people dealing with the scary things. They can bolster you. You can think, 'Okay, if that guy can deal with it, I can deal with it.' There are lessons to be learned there, as opposed to having a frivolous popcorn experience. I think some of this stuff is good for your soul.

We do have depression in the family, and I've experienced it as it pops up from time to time. It is easier to deal with when I have someone looking to me to do things.

I wasn't hugely popular at school. In fact, I was bullied at school.

I was a kid who got picked on in school and got beat up by popular, athletic soccer-type people.

I've always tried to be nice to people, so that sort of translates into popularity, I guess.

When you go for business, you just see the airport, the offices, cities. You never see what 80 per cent of the population does in a country, so if you want to understand what Indonesia is made of, or the depths of China or India, you have to go and see.

You tell people that all the time, 'Jail's the worst place ever and you don't want to go there,' which is true but at the same time you see it's filled with a bunch of people like guy is drinking on a porch somewhere and he gets arrested for public intoxication. He's going to miss work. He's not a bad guy per se.

When I was with Washington, Portland, Detroit, everybody still got love for me and I still got love for them.

The characters I portray are an extension of what I've seen, heard, or read, and so what you see in my films are how I understand life.

As an actor, what you dream of is being able to portray people that people empathize with and understand and really feel for.

As an only child, I embrace loneliness. Hollywood loneliness helped to understand Marilyn Monroe in a real way. I was able to portray her very well.

Sometimes you become friends with the characters you portray.