John Singer Sargent Quotes

My duty is that of a chronicler; and if I perform that conscientiously, the lessons which my observations suggest will need no pointing out.

I don't like to put labels on anyone. I'm a reporter. I'd rather observe and describe and question.

I think journalists have the right to their opinions but I think their opinions should be based on history and what they see, not what they feel, how long they've been waiting or whether it's raining or it's snowing or whatever.

There are still personalities that you bond with or a fighting spirit that you connect with, but as a host you have to stay impartial and root for all of them.

Most of our writers tend to be recorders.

Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

The challenge for me has first been to see things as they are, whether a portrait, a city street, or a bouncing ball. In a word, I have tried to be objective.

To increase our objectivity, we must learn to switch off the mini-movies. Objectivity requires us to be mindful, present in the moment, and experiencing what is happening without judgment.

I'm very old-fashioned - I don't operate with an agenda. If you're a biographer, you want to be passionate about what you're doing but dispassionate about how you do it.

I'm sometimes embarrassed by how clinical I can become when I'm out reporting.

I am the kind of person that takes everything as is and then look at it from the outside looking in.

I paint things as they are. I don't comment.

The point I'm trying to make is, I'm really quite neutral. I have not been conditioned.

We are the recorders and reporters of facts - not the judges of the behaviors we describe.

I have no social agenda with my work. I'm deadpan about it.

I approach writing stories as a recorder. I think of my role as some kind of reporting device - recording and projecting.

I think perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal; fairness, however, is not.

Nature isn't positive in that way. It doesn't aim itself at you. It's not being unkind to you.

The novelist must look on humanity without partiality or prejudice. His sympathy, like that of the historian, must be unbounded, and untainted by sect or party.

When we can see things as they are, without projecting our mental models and fears, we are being objective. When we can understand and consider another person's point of view, we are being objective.

As a writer, I've tried to avoid strong opinions about morality. You just want to present things as they are and let the viewer come to their own conclusion.

I do not intend to prejudge the past.

My role is to bear witness and to bring back what people see and tell you.

Don't denounce, just state the facts.

People are so conditioned to take sides that a balanced analysis looks to them like hatred.