Tobias Wolff Quotes

Learning is a result of listening, which in turn leads to even better listening and attentiveness to the other person. In other words, to learn from the child, we must have empathy, and empathy grows as we learn.

You have to do a lot of listening, you don't just learn out of yourself.

Women on the whole are often not as shallow as men are. They can be, but they cut through things a little more easily than men do in terms of that superficial stuff.

When I write, I'm constantly putting myself in the position of someone else as I write using myriad voices; I think that's a life skill all people should learn.

The degree to which you're peculiar and different is the degree to which you must learn to hear people thinking. Just in self-defense you have to learn, where is their kindness? Where is their danger? Where is their generosity?

I can be a good listener. I can ask the right questions a lot of the time.

In a world of rapid change, an agile and adaptable mind, a pragmatic and cooperative temperament, a strong ethical orientation - these are increasingly the keys to effective leadership. And I would add to this list a capacity for intellectual humility which keeps one’s mind constantly open to a variety of viewpoints and which welcomes pluralistic exchange.

I think one of the things I really learned in Denver is the value of being a good listener.

My agenda... is to learn about people.

A vast percentage of the human race is literally not wired neurologically to get irony. Well more than half of humanity takes life at face value, which is to me terrifying.

I think a liberal arts education isn't necessarily about doing something with your degree; it's about becoming a critical thinker. And I think that critical thinking is so integral to being an actor.

You really have to be careful about what you do and think about other people around you, as human beings who feel things, and you have to learn to be empathetic and notice the signs of people who are going through trouble.

Usually, you can figure out where a person's mistakes came from if you ask them the genesis of their thought process: 'Why did you do it this way?' As opposed to telling them they did it the wrong way. Understanding their thought process will ultimately help you be able to communicate with them and navigate around them.

I can be incredibly focused, and I can appear impatient. So I've learned to slow down, get to know people, and provide more context. There's nothing wrong with getting to the point pretty quickly, but it's also helpful to give people an opportunity to talk about their work.

I'm a very good listener. I think that's one of the things that makes me a good producer. But it's a challenge for me because my custom is to listen and absorb what someone is saying and take it in, and not necessarily comment.

Different people need different kinds of communication for it to have the same effect. That was something I had to learn.

In my personal life, I would just feel like, I will always be cool with everyone.

I often talk too much and don't listen enough.

I'm constantly learning with each new job, especially about people, which is important for playing characters.

If I have any strength that would be considered above average, it is that I can read people.

I realized I wasn't a good employee because I was too busy listening to people's personal problems to do work.

My background is in arts education and we know, absolutely for a fact, that there is no better way for kids to learn critical thinking skills, communication skills, things like empathy and tolerance. This is true across every boundary, across cultural boundaries, across socioeconomic, it's a great leveler in terms of unifying our world.

I like meeting people from other walks of life and finding out about other worlds, and knowing that I'm fairly adept at one world and really stupid in many others.

I'm actually not a fan of the word 'woke.' I think the connotation of that means being socially aware, which is a beautiful thing to be. But it does not take into account being self-aware.

I'm good at reading people. If I wasn't an actor, I would be a psychologist.