Walter Kirn Quotes

People with psychopathy are very good at reading the minds of their victims. That's probably most clearly seen in deception.

Some people are selfish in all of their relationships. Those people are called sociopaths.

He's really sort of the devil. He's completely emotionally detached. He has no empathy. You find that in psychopaths. It's about power with Voldemort. It's an aphrodisiac for him. Power makes him feel alive.

There's not a lot of arc in an actual psychopath.

Sociopaths don't have feelings; they can't.

A sociopath is not just someone who doesn't care about human emotion. They're someone who understands people to the point that they can manipulate them to an extraordinary degree.

There's a certain type of sociopathy to many schemers.

Everyone has friends or people they know, while they aren't definitively sociopaths, they have sociopathic qualities.

It is strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in the world.

Pretend and real are all real to a psychopath.

I've never been a fan of sociopaths who have no conscience. That scares me because they're capable of anything.

Language and words for psychopaths are only word deep; there is no emotional colouring behind it. A psychopath can use a word like, 'I love you' but it means nothing more to him than if he said, 'I'll have a cup of coffee.'

I think the mistake lots of people make when it comes to a psychopath is that they completely write off their actions as cruel, callous and completely calculated, but actually, the truth is that they have interests and reasons behind their actions.

If you're going to put yourself above everybody else, you might end up alone.

There's jerks, and there's villains. Villains, I think, are very aware of who they are and what they're doing and their effect on the world. Jerks tend to think they're great guys.

If you're a sociopath, you don't get emotional cues.

Anybody could be a sociopath. Anybody.

The inability to experience regret is one of the diagnostic characteristics of sociopaths.

When stepping into the mind of a psychopath, you realize that there is something missing in their brain that they do not understand the consequences of their actions- in a sense.

Anybody who claims to be excited for April Fools' Day is probably a sociopath.

He who lives only for himself is truly dead to others.

Go ahead. You're not going to walk in on anyone. I'm home alone." "The whole night?" Immediately, I realized it might not have been the smartest thing to say. "Dorothea will be coming soon." That was a lie. Dorothea was long gone. It was close to midnight. "Dorothea?" "Our housekeeper. She's old- but strong. Very strong." I tried to squeeze past him. Unsuccessfully. "Sounds frightening," he said, retrieving the key from the lock. He held it out for me. "She can clean a toilet inside and out in under a minute. More like terrifying.

There's a book called "The Sociopath Next Door." I thought most sociopaths were violent. In fact, they aren't. But almost all sociopaths want to win, no matter what.

People with antisocial personality disorders aren't automatically bad - they simply approach the world with a more ruthless set of lenses. The lack of empathy or very weak empathy and the ability to read other people's weak spots can be a flammable combination when you get in the way of something they want. But they aren't a different species. They're a part of our spectrum.

Evil men of every degree will use you, flatter you, lead you on until you are useless; then, if the virtuous do not pity you, or God compassionate, you are without a friend in the universe.