David Ebershoff Quotes

I watch people from the top of buses who don't know they're being watched. It's quite fascinating.

I'm still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to. For me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent.

I'm curious. Period. I find everything interesting. Real life. Fake life. Objects. Flowers. Cats. But mostly people. If you keep your eyes open and your mind open, everything can be interesting.

My books are based on observing others, not myself.

I think in many ways, I'm sort of a blank canvas, because in many ways, I'm just observing the world and the people around me and their characters and letting them kind of explode off me and to find out why they're doing what they're doing. But then every once in awhile, I get to take on a whole new character.

Inspiration comes from the world around me. I'm an inveterate eavesdropper.

I always observe the people who pass by when I ride an escalator. I'll never see most of them again, so I imagine a lot of things about their lives... about the day ahead of them.

When I play games, I'll make up little stories for just anything. It's almost the game of making up background stories for people you see on the street. You know what I mean? I wasn't exactly the popular kid in school growing up, so I found myself really observing people, and watching how they interact, and how they react to things.

I'm curious about people. That's what I've always done since I've been a small boy. I'm curious about others.

For a writer it's a dream to sit and watch people as close as possible.

My inspiration is everything that the human being gets up to.

An actress spends a lifetime observing people. You build up a mental library. No, not a library. Make that a repository.

I love watching people, guessing what they are going to do next. I'm no Derren Brown, but I love that people stuff. Maybe that's why I'm an actor.

I spent my entire childhood observing people. I still do.

Walking around sometimes, I would love to just be able to watch people, see how they act. Sometimes I would love to be invisible.

A good writer is always a people watcher.

I'm a voyeur. I say that with no embarrassment. If I could have a superpower, being invisible would be it, no question. I'm fascinated by human behavior; observing people and seeing how much story gets told without a lot of dialogue, and how much our brain fills in.

There's so many different people that I'm fascinated by. Different kinds of characters that I meet in, like, everyday life, that I'm like, 'I don't know how you exist. Like, you're so fascinating.'

It is something I recognise in myself. I do eavesdrop. I do people-watch, a lot.

I was always such a people-watcher. I would sit on street corners alone and watch people and make up stories about them in my head. Then, all of a sudden, I was the one being watched.

It's fun to peek into other people's worlds and see how they go about doing things.

You watch people and study them the way an alien would.

Writers and travelers are mesmerized alike by knowing of their destinations.

I think I'm very curious about other people. I like to sit and eavesdrop, you know.

I'm a big people watcher and a people talker. The beautiful thing about being an artist and a creative person is that you can get an idea from anywhere, and I'm always on the hunt for them.