Social Observation Quotes

I try to keep my sentences quite pared back. What I really want to do is observe people's relationships and interactions. I don't want language to get in the way of that. It's quite a difficult process to achieve that, for the language to feel clear.

For some reason, I like seeing people feel emotional.

We're kind of in a voyeuristic world. We have TV shows that are all about watching people do weird things in houses. People are obsessed with that. There's live coverage of it.

Being a lawyer, even in a city as large as Chicago, is like being a citizen of a small town. I love watching the life of the town play out. You know, the rise and fall of individual lives in the entire community is just fascinating to me.

Going to a grammar school, you mixed with all sorts of different types and I used to listen to how they talked. When I did my imitations, I could sound like someone really rough, or I could sound like a cabinet minister.

If we put the camera on ourselves, our friends and neighbors, we'll come up with some scary stuff.

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own.

Maybe it was the same with people: if you studied them,you'd see new and different things. But would you like what you saw? Did it depend on who was doing the looking?

I've always enjoyed studying the small clues that indicate a particular class level.

The best way to study to be an actor is to interact genuinely with the people around you and observe and listen.

People who take themselves too seriously, who can't see anything else, are usually funny.

When the movie's on, I usually watch more of the audience.

I had been hearing on-the-ground buzz that white folks were moving to places like Bend, Oregon, and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and St. George, Utah. That led me to discover through census data that these towns were already extremely white and they were becoming, in most cases, even whiter. Statistics could only tell me so much; in order to get to the spirit and essence of it, I had to immerse myself.

The joy of my heart is to 'study men, their manners, and their ways,' and for this darling object I cheerfully sacrifice every other consideration.

It's really hard to watch yourself on TV. It's definitely different in that the world has to watch, too.

Our human experience, like the World War II Ultra code-breaking machine, catches the heavy traffic of messages about what we really do and what is done to us every day.

I don't know anybody that doesn't own a gun.

I spend my time backstage at the Lanvin shows, and when I come out at the end, all I see are people's eyes.

I often felt myself to be an outsider, which is great training for all writers.

The same applies to any artist; we are the tools and instruments of our talent. We are outsiders; we have no place in society because society is what we’re watching, and dealing with.

I like writing people from a slightly sharp angle and then throwing more light on them. I think in life we see somebody and make judgments very quickly about who they are and what they are. Or we think people are boring because they appear ordinary.

An English man does not travel to see English men.

I do weird things, and people watch.

When I'm talking to someone I think 'can I use this dialogue in a book,'" said Luis. "If the answer is no I try talking to someone else.