Overall Perspective Quotes

We don't want to focus on the trees (or their leaves) at the expense of the forest.

A parable: A man was examining the construction of a cathedral. He asked a stone mason what he was doing chipping the stones, and the mason replied, "I am making stones." He asked a stone carver what he was doing. "I am carving a gargoyle." And so it went, each person said in detail what they were doing. Finally he came to an old woman who was sweeping the ground. She said. "I am helping build a cathedral." ...Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one special part of the whole and does not think of how what they are doing relates to the larger picture.

Mom. She always says to look at the big picture. How all of the little things don't matter in the long run. . . I know that Mom is right about the big picture. But Dad is right too: Life is really just a bunch of nows, one after the other. The dots matter.

I think at times, too many people focus on just little things and not focus on what the whole question and the whole answer is.

There are parts of a ship which taken by themselves would sink. The engine would sink. The propeller would sink. But when the parts of a ship are built together, they float. So with the events of my life. Some have been tragic. Some have been happy. But when they are built together, they form a craft that floats and is going places. And I am comforted.

Whatever the ups and downs of detail within our limited experience, the larger whole is primarily beautiful.

Measure a man by his actions fully from the beginning to the end. Don’t take a piece out of my life or a song out of my music and say this is what I’m about because you know better than that.

When you do a lot of acting your entire life, you see the entire set from one point of view. To have a chance to step back and pull it all together is really exciting. You want to do it all; you want to have a hand in everything.

In life, you always look at the total picture, not just a segment of it.

I've decided to skip 'holistic'. I don't know what it means, and I don't want to know. That may seem extreme, but I followed the same strategy toward 'Gestalt' and the 'Twist', and lived to tell the tale.

‎Be careful not to keep your eyes glued to detail. Stand far enough away to get a perspective of the whole.

Trust is always a factor. You've just got to look at the big picture, and you've got to look at the small picture - the small picture in the sense that you've got to make every scene work and you've got to deal with what people are presenting you with, too.

You have to have a macro outlook, see the film in totality, whether it will resonate with people or not.

Everything makes sense a bit at a time. But when you try to think of it all at once, it comes out wrong.

This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole.

I liked to act in plays when I was a kid, and then in college. But that's the last time I really acted. I always loved it. But my interests were more in looking at the whole, rather than getting completely swallowed up in a single part of the whole.

People like to cherry-pick the parts of their career that they're either in the midst of or that they're the most proud of, but the truth is careers and lives are tapestries.

I'm admittedly a record guy. Singles and I are a different beast. I'm definitely an overall picture thinker.

When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.