Local Insight Quotes

Your barber always knows everything that goes on in the town, doesn't he?

Any time there is a coup you start with the assumption that the home government missed it …. Why should we know better than the government that’s being overthrown?

I never knew how small L.A. was until I started to work here.

I feel travelling by road helps me connect with more people and understand their problems.

Whatever position we may rise to, be it of MP, CM or PM, nothing can teach us the way villages can.

What if instead of seeing a neighborhood that reminds you of the place you grew up in, you see your actual neighborhood? The data exists. The technology exists. It's just a matter of sourcing it and processing it in a compelling fashion.

Listen to the people on the ground. They have all the solutions in the world.

I went to college in Atlanta, so I know that city.

At Al Jazeera, we are getting our local Somalis, Yemenis and Sudanese, local correspondents from within the society, who understand much better than the people who come from overseas. We will get a much better insight.

The discoveries which we make abroad are special and particular; those which we make at home are general and significant. The further off, the nearer the surface. The nearer home, the deeper.

When it comes to the southern states, I used to actually live in Louisiana for a year.

I don’t poll. I go out into the communities and talk to regular people. That’s the poll.

The secret to global investing is gaining an insight into the hopes and desires of the people who live and work in the countries you invest in.

The Greeks said the artist doesn't actually have to travel and look around. You stay where God has put you, and you dig as deep as you can. This is what I've done.

I used to live in New York, and I have friends that work in the fashion world, and I feel like I had an ear to the ground there.

When U.S.-based editors and columnists parachute into a news storm, it is often the stringers who keep us out of trouble, helping us glimpse the complexity behind the headlines.

A lot of times when we work overseas we tend to put the experience of someone who lives overseas, a Chinese person or a Korean person or a Bosnian person, within the prism of an American life.

New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications.

When you go for business, you just see the airport, the offices, cities. You never see what 80 per cent of the population does in a country, so if you want to understand what Indonesia is made of, or the depths of China or India, you have to go and see.

I went down and spoke to some of the people who lived in the neighborhood in Miami. At the end of the day I think my connection with Tarell [Alvin McCraney] is what helped me the most.

You always see a better side of where you're visiting when a local shows you around.

I can read in any book and newspaper about the city of Detroit, but I want to hear what the people in Detroit have to say about Detroit. My best education is actually talking to people.

We believe in the wisdom of the front lines.

Simple people can bring very good knowledge to Parliament because they know the ground.