Garry Shandling Quotes

The problem is not the occupation, but how people deal with it.

If war occurs, that positive adult contact in every shape is needed more than ever. It will be a matter of emotional life and death. There's not a handy one-minute way of talking to your kid about war.

There is a time in the life of every predicament where it is ripe for resolution. Emotions provide the cue to act when a problem is big enough to see, yet still small enough to solve. By understanding your emotions, you can move adeptly through your current challenges and prevent future ones.

We talk about that a lot: how, when you're under pressure, it brings out the best and the worst in people.

I've been through WTO riots in Seattle, massive earthquakes, major floods... forest fires. I just try to be as even-keeled and calm as possible.

I was caught on the freeway for hours when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The entire city had to be evacuated. I observed lives threatened by catastrophes and a whole range of behaviour. What could people do during a crisis?

The only thing you think of is that you are in the middle and that you've got to find a way to stop it.

When something really extreme happens, you have to find a way to embrace that and include it in how you think about the character. Sometimes it's not easy.

If I have a problem with someone I talk about them. I don't pick on their kids.

When you can't solve the problem, manage it.

On land, you can walk away from people, from unpleasant situations. But when you're on a ship for 14 months with 49 other people, if you don't resolve your issues it literally could mean - and this would be an extreme circumstance - the sinking of the ship. You learn a lot about other people. You learn a lot about yourself.

It's not impressive to get in a fight, but if one does happen, you've gotta be ready to handle it. Every girl, not just biker chicks, knows what kind of guy can.

Pressure makes people react in different ways. Some people plunge in, and others take the way out.

My whole background as a social worker has allowed me to understand human behavior in difficult situations. Working in Kenya, I see the most desperate situations - things I could never believe possible - and then have to try to find solutions.

I have three stepfamilies as well as my family of origin. I've had to adjust to them and also go back and forth among them. I became an observer of human nature because when you are in those situations you have to be.

I like to look at how people work together when they are put into stressful situations, when life stops being cozy.

The human crisis is always a crisis of understanding: what we genuinely understand we can do.

When times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good, but what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. What works in the real world is cooperation.

I think it's a bit short-sighted to play any character and not explore, in some respects, the way they act when things get really bad.

People tend not to dwell on drama.

A typical leader has - a natural tendency is to be defensive in the face of a crisis. The first reaction is to blame someone - or something - else. Often, the blame is aimed at something abstract or non-controllable, which often has nothing to do with the crisis but is adjacent to whatever is going on, so it's an easy target.

Conflict, when handled correctly, strengthens.

You find a lot out about people when they're blowing up, as we say, gasping for air, and if they can still hold conversations and be polite.

When something catastrophic happens to someone you love, or a situation arises that affects people you love the most, if that's the first time you've been in that position, you never really know what to do.

When faced with exceptional circumstances, people react differently.