John Petit-Senn Quotes

There are things that aren't supposed to be comfortable to read, because those situations shouldn't be comfortable to discuss, but they still need to be discussed.

In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is good to break the ice by some one whose words are of less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by chance.

There are no forbidden questions in science, no matters too sensitive or delicate to be probed, no sacred truths.

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it.

I have a very good sense of tone, and it's possible to talk about very personal things and maintain a level of dignity and even privacy - to go to the place, to talk about it, but not get icky.

Most people don't want to talk about politics and religion. They say, 'Let's talk about something else.'

There's a couple things you don't talk about in life, and that's race, religion and politics. I try to make sure I don't talk about politics at all.

I can tell you that the book 'The Ugly Truth' is about puberty and all the awfulness that comes with that time in a person's life. It was definitely some different subject matter to be writing about, especially knowing some of my audience are second and third graders.

On sensitive issues, talk isn't cheap - it takes real courage to pry open topics nailed shut.

We're kind of coached to stay away from touchy subjects just because of the arena that we're in.

Often, as an interviewer, particularly when you're talking to highly visible people, celebrities, and it's known that negative things have happened, they don't want to talk about it, or you have to really work up to it. You have to carefully construct the conversation so that they feel open enough to discuss some of those things with you.

It doesn’t matter what you are ranked until the end.

In the end only kindness matters.

If you're not at least willing to die for something- something that really matters- in the end, you die for nothing.

No matter which word it is, when I pronounce repeatedly, it ends up sounding utterly ridiculous and meaningless to me.

I am the victor. In the end nothing else matters.

God, or what have you, will not be found at the far end of a syllogism, no matter how brilliantly phrased or conceived.

If I am asked 'what is good?' my answer is that good is good, and that is the end of the matter.

When individuals approach one another with deep purposes on both sides they seldom come at once to the matter which they have most at heart. They dread the electric shock of a too sudden contact with it.

If relationships matter most then [at the end of our lives], shouldn't they matter most now?

It's not what you have at the end of life, it's what you leave behind that matters.

I guess in the end, it doesn’t matter what we wanted. What matters is what we chose to do with the things we had.

That's all that really matters in the end. Stories.

After you're dead [...] it's not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live.

There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people...religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin!