Patrick deWitt Quotes

I like it now when kids stare at me, because it is a way of starting a dialogue. And it is far better than them not looking at you at all. Nothing is worse than not being seen.

When you're a storyteller, part of the process of storytelling is the kind of communion you form with the audience to whom you're telling your story. If some segment of the audience doesn't like that story, it doesn't feel good.

Let's use our stories to encourage listening to one another and to hear not just the good news, but also the pain that lies at the back of a lot of people's stories and histories.

We must listen and learn, show humility and seek again to talk for and to people's ambitions and concerns.

We meet aliens every day who have something to give us. They come in the form of people with different opinions.

Listening to people keeps them entertained.

Readers are what it's all about, aren't they? If not, why am I writing?

You need the audience to go on the ride with you. You can't just isolate them.

We must win the common people in every corner. This will be obtained chiefly by means of the schools, and by open, hearty behaviour, show, condescention, popularity, and toleration of their prejudices, which we shall at leisure root out and dispel

One of my messages to Republicans is very simple: One-third of your schedule should be listening to people in minority communities.

If you aren't talking to readers and letting them know you're just like them, they can lose interest.

Life is a conversation. Make it a good one.

It's important for people to give every leader the chance to step forward and look for ways to have dialogue.

I think one of the things that is important, for me, though a lot of people would disagree with me, is that you be founded in theater so that you understand what an audience is, what kind of an animal it is and how to play with it. How to have fun with it, how to sympathize with it, all the things that an audience is. I don't think you're going to find that out unless you do theater.

Making those around you feel invisible is the opposite of leadership.

Everyone has a responsibility to not only tolerate another person's point of view, but also to accept it eagerly as a challenge to your own understanding. And express those challenges in terms of serving other people.

I'm writing for my ideal reader, for somebody who's willing to take the time, who's willing to get lost in a new world, who's willing to do their part. But then I have to do my part and give them a sound and a voice that they believe in enough to keep going.

Ten years ago, you wrote a book and you never expected to find out anything about the author. Now with social media, everyone wants that connection. I think our readers want to be invited into our lives and brought on the journey and be part of this whole process.

Connecting with Canadians isn't about what you say, it's about what you're listening to. It's about what you understand.

Silence may be golden, but can you think of a better way to entertain someone than to listen to him?

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

My first job is to entertain, but if, while you're enjoying, you start to question something you never thought about before or empathize with, relate to, love someone you only thought of as 'other' once upon a time - how awesome is that.

I love meeting new people; I think everyone has a story to tell. We should all listen sometimes.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right.

I am fully present wherever I am. Why bother being in a community or neighborhood and not being fully present? I think that's colonization. I'm not interested in that.