Terry McMillan Quotes

When I hear other people's stories, I like to believe that they contribute to my 'Encyclopedia of Human Experience.' The stories I hear help me expand my definition of what love is, what pain feels like, what sacrifice means, what laughter can do.

When you have a fresh point of view that comes from the right side of the heart, it's just so valuable. You can take it or not take it, but just that perspective can give you a lot of strength or make you reflect on a lot of things.

When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.

As far as my mindset changing, I see myself having more empathy in my older age.

A film can open hearts and minds that have been closed, for whatever reasons.

I will never actually be able to know what it's like to go through life in someone else's body.

Changing your attitude from self-centerdness to understanding requires desire and commitment to always try to see things from the other persons point of view.

Empathy is the most mysterious transaction that the human soul can have, and it's accessible to all of us, but we have to give ourselves the opportunity to identify, to plunge ourselves in a story where we see the world from the bottom up or through another's eyes or heart.

I see myself as a witness to humanity.

Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else's shoes for a while.

I have a lot of compassion for human beings in life experiences, so I allow myself to feel what these characters are feeling and don't have a problem accepting that.

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.

The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the older man who will not laugh is a fool.

I guess the older I get, the more understanding and forgiving I've become.

You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard is the way up and down another man's stairs.

Change begins with understanding and understanding begins by identifying oneself with another person: in a word, empathy. The arts enable us to put ourselves in the minds, eyes, ears and hearts of other human beings.

I have a great deal of empathy for anyone who's having a hard time. I believe this ability to see another's viewpoint has served me well as a writer.

Walk a mile in my shoes is good advice. Our children will learn to respect others if they are used to imagining themselves in another's place.

When you research someone, you actually get beyond your own preconceptions and become aware of the human being other than the image. You become empathetic and sympathetic in turn.

When you're not involved, other people's unhappiness seems to be about the funniest damn thing on earth because you think you can solve it, that you are God, that you are above this, and that their unhappiness is just such useless toil and agony. If it's you, it ceases to be a comedy.

You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them.

I don't think you have to have experienced things to understand them.

As I get older, I get smaller. I see other parts of the world I didn't see before. Other points of view. I see outside myself more.

Movies that encourage empathy are more effective than those that objectify problems.

I have more awareness of other people and, I hope, more sensitivity to their needs. I also find that I'm more direct and outspoken.