Sarah Dessen Quotes

Listening is the key to total concentration. You listen as the character would listen, closing the door on everything else. Then you are ready to respond.

Listening well is an exercise of attention and by necessity hard work. It is because they do not realize this or because they are not willing to do the work that most people do not listen well.

To hear something asks very little of us. To listen places our entire being on notice.

In life we listen to other people. Listen with varying degrees of concentration and attention, right? Actors must learn to listen in a different way.

Whether you're with a group of people, whether you're playing music or whether you're by yourself, even if it's written material, you have to be listening.

Listen now. When people talk listen completely. Don't be thinking what you're going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe.

Listening to something is an act of surrender.

What I hear all the time is to stop and listen. When you do a scene 30 times, and know the lines, you stop listening. The point is to listen, that's the only thing that can make it real.

If you're not listening, you're not learning.

There is a craft and a power in listening.

People love to talk but hate to listen. Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what is being told us. You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer.

Many people may listen, but few people actually hear.

Listening means forgetting yourself completely - only then can you listen.

Listening is not a skill; it is a discipline.

Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking.

I don't think you can be a good listener unless you're a good listener. I think it's something that you really have to do, and if you really do it, then you can do it. If you don't do it, then you can't do it.

Success in any endeavor requires single-minded attention to detail and total concentration.

Genius is nothing but continued attention.

The lesson I learned is that sometimes the task you have at hand needs all of your concentration and focus.

You may not have any extra talent, but maybe you are just paying more attention to what you are doing.

Discipline and concentration are a matter of being interested.

But communication is two-sided - vital and profound communication makes demands also on those who are to receive it... demands in the sense of concentration, of genuine effort to receive what is being communicated.

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.

Whatever I do, I have to put 100 percent of my focus into it because I don't like to do a bad job.

When you're playing, it's important to focus 100 per cent on what you're doing.