Instant Judgment Quotes

Being on TV is similar to being an athlete. You get no second chances.

I was haunted by the constant awareness that I might be required to calculate and decide in an instant of time whether some kind of nuclear action might be required in response to a real or imagined or mistaken attack perceived to be under way against my country.

Umpiring is a tough job. Don't get me wrong - I wouldn't want to be an umpire. You've got a split second to make a decision.

A coloured man can tell, in five seconds dead, whether a white man likes him or not.

You can tell within a second of entering a bar if it's a place you should spend your time.

He judged the instant and let go; he flung himself loose into the stars.

A lot of times the best trailers are for complete dogshit movies. It's a shame that people are beyond quick to judge things these days. Lots of great stuff gets lost that way.

Everyone has a smart phone, and everything is recorded. One event spills into another. Conclusions come quickly at the near total expense of consideration of what just actually happened.

The fate of a song is often established in the first 15 minutes of writing.

contempt is as frequently produced at first sight as love.

If there is a flaw in the academy system it's that they try to tell them everything. Kids are taught the same. They look the same. So you're constantly looking for the X factor. It's the hardest thing, that mystical ingredient, instinct, the four-second hit, like/dislike, it can come unbelievably quickly.

Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality. The morality that stands against the ineradicable human habit of judging instantly, ceaselessly, and everyone; of judging before, and in the absence of, understanding. From the view­point of the novel's wisdom, that fervid readiness to judge is the most detestable stupidity, the most pernicious evil.

I meet a person, and in my mind I'm saying three minutes; I give you three minutes to show me the spark.

It is only at the first encounter that a face makes its full impression on us.

That is the godawful thing about television today. Performers don't have any place to hit and miss. You're either in or you're out; you don't have a chance to become good at your craft. If you make three pictures in a row and they don't go over, you're out of the business.

When I taught, the way in which we got evaluated is what I used to call the drive-by evaluation. Somebody would come in for 20 minutes with a checklist, and that would be your evaluation. So it was clearly a snapshot.

You're only as good as you are now - not as good as you were before.

You write a scene, and it works or it doesn't. It's immediate.

You can play a gig as a band and not know that they hated you; with standup, after every line, you know.

A sushi chef has to spot the best-quality fresh fish instantly.

I wouldn't judge people on their instant responses.