Andie MacDowell Quotes

Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.

I cannot cure everybody. I cannot help everybody. But to tell the lonely person that I am not far or different from that lonely person, that I am with him or her, that's all I think we can do and we should do.

I traffic in empathy. I try to be vulnerable with people so they can be vulnerable back. I've always been searching for empathy in other people. It's when I feel most not alone.

"Cammie!" I'll never forget the tone of Macey's voice in that moment. "Cam," she said slowly, moving toward me, "I know how it feels to be watched every second of every day. I know what it's like to trust fewer and fewer people until it seems like you are completely alone in the world. I know you think the only things that are left in your life are the bad things. I know what you're feeling, Cam." Her hands were on my shoulders. Her blue eyes were staring into mine. "I know."

The delicate and infirm go for sympathy, not to the well and buoyant, but to those who have suffered like themselves.

Each one of us has lived through some devastation, some loneliness, some weather superstorm or spiritual superstorm, when we look at each other we must say, I understand. I understand how you feel because I have been there myself. We must support each other and empathize with each other because each of us is more alike than we are unalike.

I think being compassionate of each other's lives and issues is nonnegotiable when it comes to friendships. We're all going through different stages and issues, and as I get older, I'm trying to lean into that.

I think if you can take care of yourself, and then maybe try to take care of someone else, that's sort of how you're supposed to live.

To care of another individual means to know and to experience the other as fully as possible.

Be sensitive to the needs of those around you. Live as a healer. Lift the fallen, restore the broken, and encourage the discouraged.

Oprah's stock in trade has always been her powerful unmediated connection. She could feel your pain and empower you to talk about it.

On 'Awkward,' we really like to send the message out that we're relatable, and that we get what people are going through.

All I want is for people, when they read my books, to feel companioned, to feel they're not alone in the world.

I don't claim to be an expert on love. I'm just a woman who has experienced a lot of things, and I want to share and hopefully my sharing will help make your situation better, because that's the goal.

What kind of man would I have been if I had not been there to help her? I felt along with her - not the physical pain, of course, but all her mental anguish. You can't be detached.

I felt along with her - not the physical pain, of course, but all her mental anguish. You can't be detached. She needed to have someone who understood what was happening in her mind.

Basic emotions can be conveyed through anything. As long as you show people that you're human, they'll relate to it.

Pay attention to your friends; pay attention to that cousin that jumps up on the picnic table at the family reunion and goes a little too 'nutty,' you know what I mean? Pay attention to that aunt that's down in the basement that never comes upstairs. We have to pay attention to our friends, pay attention to your family, and offer a hand.

Sympathy relies on a common experience. If you're clumsy, you might have sympathy for others who tend to bump into things. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to understand another person's feelings even if you've never experienced them yourself.

One of my impulses in acting has always to make people feel less alone.

Empathy is about two people - two people meeting, getting to know each other and tuning in to what the other person is thinking and feeling.

I always seek the time to talk to people who are reaching out for help because sometimes you just need that one person to tell you everything is going to be OK.

Empathy has the power to bring together people who would otherwise never meet. It has the power to teach us and to reach us in moments of isolation when we think nobody understands.

I think I felt very alone for a lot of my life, but once I was able to share my story more and more, and people wouldn't say, 'Hey, I felt sorry for you,' but, 'I get it, and I understand you,' it kind of encouraged me to tell it more. I just don't want people to feel alone.

Do you know what people really want? Everyone, I mean. Everybody in the world is thinking: I wish there was just one other person I could really talk to, who could really understand me, who'd be kind to me. That's what people really want, if they're telling the truth.