Ben Okri Quotes

I guess I'm just quite observant and I pay attention to a lot of things. Human behavior really fascinates me.

I was really interested in observing people. From a young age, I wouldn't listen to what an adult was saying - I was obsessed with other people's body language.

Watch people and how they handle other people. You have to stay open and keep your eyes open to them.

I've learnt to not look that deeply into what people say as it's mostly a reflection of themselves.

Effective listening is something that can absolutely be learned and mastered. Even if you find attentive listening difficult and, in certain situations, boring or unpleasant, that doesn't mean you can't do it. You just have to know what to work on.

I'm so fascinated with the study of people and why they are the way they are. That's my research and my archaeology, if you will, when I get a role. I'm so excited to attack a part from every angle of what makes a person a person.

You learn more about a person from the people around that person than you do from the person themselves. We all have our own ideas of who we are that may or may not be justified, and you can really find out a heck of a lot more accurately from the people around an individual.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.

I just think I'm better equipped to make a study of human personality than trying to get into the mind of animals.

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

I don't take anything at face value. I always look for the reasons people are the way they are.

I am a good listener. I think that came from my schooling.

At our college we were taught a universal approach to find out about a person: what problems the person has, what difficulties, what personal tendencies and likings.

Failure to recognize the obvious is not a good characteristic of a leader.

I've always read in order to figure out people more, and that includes bad people and good people.

I'm definitely an observer of human behavior. I always have been.

People don't know how to listen, and it's not their fault. In school, we learn how to read, we learn how to write - but nobody teaches you how to listen.

When I open my mouth and talk, sometimes people say they are amazed of my intellect. I don't know if that's because I truly speak in a way that people can understand or feel a certain way, or because they don't expect it. I don't know. That's something I am curious about.

Psychology is simply great because it helps you better understand all kinds of people.

I don't know how you can understand other people or yourself if you haven't read a lot of books. I just don't think you're equipped to deal with the demands and decisions of life, particularly in your dealings with other people.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

I try as best I can to enter the realm of nuances of human behavior.

How can one know anything at all about people?

I love reading people. I really enjoy watching, observing, and being able to figure out a person, the reason they wore that dress, the reason they smell the way they do.

As with real reading, the ability to comprehend subtlety and complexity comes only with time and a lot of experience. If you don't adequately acquire those skills, moving out into the real world of real people can actually become quite scary.