Anthony Storr Quotes

So, without being cold, you really have to try to retain the capacity to help people without becoming too emotional or allowing your own emotions to have full rein.

Don't let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn't go with it.

I've never bought this idea of taking a therapeutic distance. If I see a student or house staff cry, I take great faith in that. That's a great person; they're going to be a great doctor.

I have no human feelings.

I know I'm never as good or bad as one single performance. I've never believed in my critics or my worshippers, and I've always been able to leave the game at the arena.

Emotions have no place in business, unless you do business with them.

The crux is this: you can't be sincerely empathic towards and angry at someone at the same moment. In other words, you can't walk in someone else's shoes and step on their toes at the same time.

They say that I'm very calculated and not very sensitive - that a regular, average person, there are many things that bother them, and I don't see or feel it.

It's definitely the biggest lesson - not to take things personally. But it's also the hardest one.

Detachment is a flaw, not a virtue-don’t you realize that?

It is not a demonstration of kindness or friendship to the people we care about to join them in indulging in wrongheaded, negative feelings. We do a better service to ourselves and others by remaining detached and avoiding melodramatic reactions.

When we really see other people as they are without taking it personally, we can never be hurt by what they say or do.

I don't take anything personally. I am a secondary character in other people's stories. I know that whatever people say about me is just a projection of their image of me. It has nothing to do with me.

Comfort in expressing your emotions will allow you to share the best of yourself with others, but not being able to control your emotions will reveal your worst.

I have a lot of compassion for human beings in life experiences, so I allow myself to feel what these characters are feeling and don't have a problem accepting that.

We can empathize as deeply as we can empathize.

I let my personal feelings take care of themselves. I find that works better.

I try not to be overly analytical.

I've been thinking recently about all the qualities you need in order to be an actor. First and foremost, you've got to have a thick skin and give out an 'I don't give a monkey's what you think' kind of vibe, while at the same time really caring what everyone thinks. You've got to be tough and sensitive at the same time.

At the end of the day you have to keep emotions away.

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.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

While it's really hard to do, at the same time, I'm escaping my body, which I really want to do. I'm living someone else's life. I get very intensely into the story, into the interviews and the research. I'm experiencing things along with my subjects. I have a freedom I don't have in my physical life.

I feel very strongly that you shouldn't mix your emotions with business. When it comes to my emotions, I certainly don't mix them with my business.

I feel like the writer observing the grief, but it is difficult to be detached from it.