Lionel Shriver Quotes

One of the things I think we're learning to do as the twelfth insight emerges is to be discerning without being judgmental, because condemning someone certainly feels like a comic event that brings other things back on you.

I learned very early on in life that not everyone wants to hear every fact in the world, even if you want to tell them everything you've ever read.

It takes a great man to be a good listener.

I'm very honest - brutally honest. I always look at things from their point of view as well as mine. And I know when to walk away.

I have learned the hard way to mind my business, without judging who people are and what they do. I am more troubled by the lack of space being provided for the truth to unfold. Humans cannot seem to wait for or honor the truth. Instead, we make it up based on who we believe people should or should not be.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

When I was younger, I suppose I was interested in checking out as much about writing as I could: bad, weird, irritating, even things not-to-my-taste. Now I am less open. I will decide after a few pages if I want to stay in the world of the book, and if I don't, I put it down. I have less time left.

People who see themselves as victims are known not to be sensitive to the suffering of others.

Brownson never will stop and listen, neither in conversation, but what is more, not in solitude.

Replace judgment with curiosity.

If you don't want to investigate what you're passing judgment on, then it's your fault. And I believe that if people investigate Goldberg as a human being, I'm not such a bad guy.

The biggest piece of advice I have is - listen. Don't jump to the answer or what you think the answer is. The more you listen, the more you learn.

People who label themselves as 'realists' are usually accurate - they see to the real edge of what they know, understand, or believe. At best, these folks tend to be caring worriers.

My mother's openness has remained inspiring to me. I strive to be a skeptic, in the best sense of that word: I question everything, and yet I'm open to everything. And I don't have immovable beliefs. My values shift and grow with my experiences - and as my context changes, so does what I believe.

Any time you start judging with an overly critical eye rather than letting things just be, and following what you think is right, it's complicated to find balance.

A leader who listens is one who is malleable and willing to refine her views and actions as she learns new information or hears a better idea.

I mean, I think it's a two-way relationship: I think you should not have too much faith in your own rationality. You should not have too much faith in the rationality of, you know, anybody else either. We all learn together about the way the world is, and I think it's a sort of antidote to wishful thinking of all kinds.

I speak from experience, and I speak from the heart, and I speak only what I know and what I understand; and on what I don't know and what I don't understand, I'm a good listener.

I have an increasingly strong feeling that all of us, myself included, too many times make too many statements and don't ask enough questions.

I just want to be more willing to listen to many people and be cautious about what I'm doing.

There's a difference in being opinionated and judgmental; I'm still trying to figure out what that fine line is - I think we are all.

I'm someone who likes to listen, who likes to watch, and who likes to learn.

I know that I can't take anyone lightly.

So many people compromise everything; you don't have to do that. You see one opportunity and you're scared to turn it down. You don't have to take everything that comes your way and there's always something else on the other side.

I can't control other people, what their beliefs are.