Irvin Kershner Quotes

What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.

I'm a man of many emotions, so I'm a human being, and I think that's what people tend to forget sometimes.

Every now and then, I am reminded it's not always about politics. It's about people.

I'm not saying that I don't experience people in life as evil, but writing is not a place of alienation; writing is the place where we can try to be human.

The more deeply you understand other people, the more you will appreciate them, the more reverent you will feel about them. To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.

And that's how we measure out our real respect for people—by the degree of feeling they can register, the voltage of life they can carry and tolerate—and enjoy. End of sermon. As Buddha says: live like a mighty river. And as the old Greeks said: live as though all your ancestors were living again through you.

If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.

The people knew what had made them human. It was not their shortcomings, but their hearts.

How many times have I wondered if it is really possible to forge links with a mass of people when one has never had strong feelings for anyone, not even one's own parents: if it is possible to have a collectivity when one has not been deeply loved oneself by individual human creatures. Hasn't this had some effect on my life as a militant--has it not tended to make me sterile and reduce my quality as a revolutionary by making everything a matter of pure intellect, of pure mathematical calculation?

To invent a story, or admirably and thoroughly tell any part of a story, it is necessary to grasp the entire mind of every personage concerned in it, and know precisely how they would be affected by what happens; which to do requires a colossal intellect: but to describe a separate emotion delicately, it is only needed that one should feel it oneself; and thousands of people are capable of feeling this or that noble emotion, for one who is able to enter into all the feelings of someone sitting on the other side of the table.

Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other ­people. Nothing that happens to a writer – however happy, however tragic – is ever wasted.

Here's what I would want for humanity, because this is what I have come to see is true: it's so simple when we listen to people.

I like people with depth, I like people with emotion, I like people with a strong mind, an interesting mind, a twisted mind, and also someone that can make me smile.

Ultimately success or failure in photographing people depends on the photographer's ability to understand his fellow man.

This is the most enormous extension of vision of which life is capable: the projection of itself into other lives. This is the lonely, magnificent power of humanity. It is . . . the supreme epitome of the reaching out.

In 30 years of travel and training leaders -164 nations - I've never met anyone who didn't need massive doses of love.

The relationship changes as you learn more about people, and the work sort of takes on its own life. I enjoy this very much.

We've got a planet in which we don't want to have everybody having sex, and most people are lonely anyway.

A great mind is a good sailor, as a great heart is.

I feel my characters are valid, my characters are people, my characters have hope. Hope is the thing that'll take us through.

I have heard people say that they felt closer to their parents after they have died. Maybe if I treat people as if they were dead, I could get along with them better

We have a relational problem with those who are suffering or who are different from us. All of us are most comfortable around people who are like us culturally and economically.

As actors, we want to go find the humanity and make it more nuanced and fill in the colors, rather than just being suit people who crack cases, 'cause they aren't that.

You don’t learn about yourself by being alone, you learn about yourself from other people.