Nellie McClung Quotes

You have to be an outsider to write.

Writers are first and foremost observers. We lose ourselves in the watching and then the telling of the world we find. Often we feel on the fringes, in the margins of life. And that's where we belong. What you are a part of, you cannot observe.

An outsider can see some things much better.

Life's pretty funny when you're objectively on the outside looking at it.

Just going along with this, what I did, or what I do is I imagine not being myself seeing it, but imagine somebody else who's seeing it for the first time.

I was always an outsider, always standing outside, observing and trying to figure things out. Which is exactly what you need to do as a writer, I suppose.

Being an outsider at all times is both unhealthy and useful, because you become much more objective about things.

The beauty of cricket is that there are so many different opinions as to the best way to do something and at times it is easier to see something when you're not emotionally involved in the game and not responsible for the decision. You can go and have a cup of tea and look at it from a different point of view.

To be able to observe with a stranger's eye helps one to see with an artist's eye. What alienates us inspires.

To see some truths you must stand outside and look in.

To write well about the elegant world you have to know it and experience it to the depths of your being... what matters is not whether you love it or hate it, but only to be quite clear about your position regarding it.

Men and things have each their proper perspective; to judge rightly of some it is necessary to see them near, of others we can never judge rightly but at a distance.

No to laugh, not to lament, not to detest, but to understand.

Our job is not to set things right but to see them right.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

I don't think ignorance is a way that you gain distance on something.

I was an outsider, never quite part of what was going on, always looking in. It turned out to be great preparation for writing fiction.

Sometimes one can be so closely involved with things that the larger context is lost to view.

One must always try to see the truth of a situation - it makes things universal.

All the things worth writing about are outside me. I'm a lens, not a source. And even if it's not always a comfortable journey, it's always a stimulating one.

I have definitely had experiences where I can feel the shift from simply living my life to being slightly outside of my life and taking notes.

Once you get away from where you're from, you look at it in a different way.

I am best viewed from a distance.

In the midst of events there is no perspective.

I have labored carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate, but to understand human actions