Victor Kiam Quotes

Take the perspective of a journalist or scientist. Really study what's around you. What are people wearing, what do the interiors of buildings look like, what noises do you hear? If you bring your analytical powers to bear, you can make almost anything interesting.

I tend to stare at people and memorize what they're saying and how they say it.

You've got to be an observer. And you've got to take time to listen to people, talk, to watch what they do.

The most successful detectives owe their success to noticing small signs. Scouts are natural detectives and never let the smallest detail escape them. These small things are called by Scouts 'Sign.'

Attention to detail - Sherlock certainly has that, and my memory is pretty good - but not as good as his.

I'm a transactional lawyer, which involves a lot of negotiation. If nothing else, that's given me a good eye for human motivation and frequent case studies in peculiar psychological quirks. I think that's served me fairly well as a writer.

Poirot said placidly, “One does not, you know, employ merely the muscles. I do not need to bend and measure the footprints and pick up the cigarette ends and examine the bent blades of grass. It is enough for me to sit back in my chair and think. It is this – ” he tapped his egg-shaped head – “this, that functions!

I have learned that in all negotiations nothing matters except the will to reach agreement.

It's my job to look at other people's humanity and it's my job to, 24/7, look at my life and listen to everything everyone says, watching their faces, the little idiosyncratic aspects of human beings - it's like a sponge, I take it in.

All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice.

Drawing teaches habits of close observation that will always be useful.

Acting has helped me understand people, not only because you are acting as a character, but also because you are watching other actors work. That really helps you identify in life when someone is acting, not being true.

Read like a detective and write like a conscientious investigative reporter.

Donald Trump knows how to use leverage in negotiations.

I think my thing is that I try and pick up on things that other people have maybe not picked up on.

How can one bargain for anything that is worth while? And what else is worth bargaining for?

The real heroes anyway aren't the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention.

Photography allows you to learn to look and see. You begin to see things you'd never paid attention to.

I often pose questions to myself and want the answers. The questions may be psychological or emotional. Or they may involve botany or [...] physiology. [...] I am very curious about strangers I observe - as in a bus line. I am very attached to finding out answers.

If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.

With equality of experience and of general faculties, a woman usually sees much more than a man of what is immediately before her.

Conversation: A fair for the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.

They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.

Anger can be an effective negotiating tool, but only as a calculated act, never as a reaction.

I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones; they're the most important.