John Edgar Wideman Quotes

I love reading people. I really enjoy watching, observing, and being able to figure out a person, the reason they wore that dress, the reason they smell the way they do.

I'm good at reading people.

Our body awareness in the West is ridiculous.

This business of really knowing people, deep down, including your own self, it is not something you can learn in school or from a book. It takes your whole being to do it—your eyes and your ears, your brain and your heart. Maybe your heart most of all. —Bobby Goodspeed

The process of receiving information for me is seeing, hearing, and feeling their energy in my frame of reference. That doesn't mean I see the individual, unfortunately.

Wisdom comes from within. Knowledge is acquired and can sometimes put a screen on your wisdom.

I'm concerned about the unknowability of other people.

I have been a big guy all my life, I am not going to lose a bunch of weight, because then you're like that weird fat person that got skinny but still has a big head. I don't want to do that. So I'm just trying.

I don't see myself as angry, although other people see that. I just see myself as a short, dumpy guy with bad feet, and I'm passionate.

I cannot stress enough that the answer to life's questions is often in people's faces. Try putting your iPhones down once in a while, and look in people's faces. People's faces will tell you amazing things. Like if they are angry, or nauseous or asleep.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Sometimes I see through things when people are talking. I'm really sensitive to other people, so I can tell if somebody's putting on a front.

I know my body better than anything, better than anybody.

All writing is presumption, of course, since no one knows what it is like to be another human being.

To love a person is to know and love the person. But we can pick up an enormous amount about another human being just by exchanging a couple of sentences. It's not yet knowledge; it's an intuition that motivates you to want to find out more.

Most of my clients don't realize that the way they look and the way they think about their looks are two separate issues.

I can read people, and if the other person doesn't want to say anything, I'm fine with that. People say things when it's time to say them.

If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.

I think the eyes are very revealing and can expose a lot about a persons mood or character.

My eyebrows make a more profound impact on other people than they do on me. I just let 'em grow.

When you are interviewing someone, don't just write down what he says. Ask yourself: Does this guy remind you of someone? What does the room feel like? Notice smells, voice inflection, neighborhoods you pass through. Be a cinematographer.

I once had someone say to me in an interview, 'You are more ugly on the screen than in real life.'

Quarterbacks can still have good bodies. I'm always conscious of the stereotype. I want to change what people think. There's a lot more to it than what you see on the field.

I'm a big guy; people don't realize that.

I've always been a keen observer of people.