Simon Baron-Cohen Quotes

We lack social awareness because we're so focused on what we're going to say next - and how what other people are saying affects us - that we completely lose sight of other people. This is a problem because people are complicated. You can't hope to understand someone until you focus all of your attention in his or her direction.

I'm not in the what-people-feel business. It is not my place to guess.

I feel like I'm kind of a bit of a sponge in a way. Like, if people around me are going through things, I find it very hard not to be empathetic.

It takes a little bit of mindfulness and a little bit of attention to others to be a good listener, which helps cultivate emotional nurturing and engagement.

I can spend 10 to 15 minutes with someone, and they can tell me what they're going through. I may never have gone through that, but I get it on a really deep level.

I'm a sensitive guy; I respond to things that make my eyes well up a little bit, or make me root for people. I find the human condition interesting.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.

I just think self-satisfied people ignore certain signs about other people.

The idea of faking empathy to take a step forward to understanding - it's a really powerful idea.

The irony is that I'm actually a very empathetic person, but I don't believe in sympathy at all.

Often, little situations trigger enormous reactions. Be there, present for it. Your partner will find it easier to see it in you, and you will find it easier to see it in them.

Mindfulness helps you to be where you are when you're there. When I'm interacting with constituents who are suffering, that matters.

Sometimes people just need to feel heard, and being an actor has taught me to really listen.

I'm very sensitive. I remember, as a kid at school, if someone in the classroom was sad or angry, it could have a great impact on me.

I don't think I'm a chameleon. I can feel where people are coming from, what makes them tick, where they are vulnerable, what makes them feel good about themselves. I get just as much out of it as they do. I love connecting.

If you can understand, you can feel compassion.

Empathy as a complex emotion is different. It requires awareness of the other person's feelings and of one's own reactions. The appropriate reaction may not be to cry when another person cries, but to reassure them, or even to leave them alone.

Some people think that without that spark of empathy we would do nothing, but that's just flat-out wrong. You could feel compassion for somebody without the spark of empathy.

... I think that I was too self-centered to ever develop good skills as a peacemaker. In my younger days, I assumed that it was because I was smarter than everyone else, with no patience for explaining things in short words for mouthbreathers who just didn't get it.

People are always trying to tell you how they feel. Some of them say it outright, and some of them, they tell you with their actions. And you have to listen. I don't know what will happen with your lady friend. I think she's a nice person, and I hope you get what you want. But do me a favor: Listen, and don't ignore what you hear.

I'm a very sensitive person by nature. Things move me very easily, like music or videos on Facebook, and I feel for people.

What I remember as a child is that other kids didn't care about suffering. I always did.

We must put ourselves in the place of those who are to hear us

… people can't imagine someone else's point of view.

People aren't very good at other people's pain.