Nelson Mandela Quotes

Fiction is a particularly effective way for strangers to connect across time and distance

What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people's dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats - and they in turn can listen to ours.

Music can be the bridge to understanding, but people have to get some knowledge.

So there's no guarantee if you like the music you will empathize with the culture and the people who made it. It doesn't necessarily happen. I think it can, but it doesn't necessarily happen. Which is kind of a shame.

Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are checks drawn on insufficient funds.

I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.

Stories are the common ground that allow people to connect, despite all our defences and all our differences.

All those chemicals that create empathy only work when you are in a room together.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

I give everyone upmost respect, and when people feel that, you end up getting the most out of your interaction with them. That connectivity is really important in my life.

If we dare to come closer to our fellow human beings, we will be able to see and understand them better.

Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.

You don't ask people about the immigration policies of the U.K. or their country's agricultural policy. Instead, you talk to them about the meal they're eating or their family, and from that you get the sense of another human being, someone we can all relate to.

I try to communicate in a way that allows people in on what's going on. What's better than references to popular culture?

Whether a plane to Singapore, a subway in Manhattan, or the streets of Cincinnati, I search for meaningful conversation wherever I may travel. Without it, I believe we lose the ability to not only understand others, but more importantly, ourselves.

Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.

In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal - universal and transporting.

'Arrival' talks very little about language and how to precisely dissect a foreign language. It's more a film on intuition and communication by intuition, the language of intuition.

In this world, conversations are negotiations for closeness in which people try to seek and give confirmation and support, and to reach consensus. They try to protect themselves from others' attempts to push them away.

I definitely, really appreciate that quality that humans like to show constantly, even without saying anything, that they're with you and they're processing something.

To truly feel seen by another person makes you feel so peaceful.

There's not many people that I can't relate to and can't share experiences with.

My passion in life isn't politics. It truly is connecting to people and women.

There's something really comforting when you can truly connect with someone and be understood. Isn't that what we all want?

I'm really interested in how we understand each other - and whether we can understand each other.