Thoughtful Engagement Quotes

I respect the audience's intelligence a lot, and that's why I don't try to go for the lowest common denominator.

The chance to talk to so many people and understand what they're thinking about and why it matters is really, really so interesting. When you're doing that, you have to truly listen to what people are saying. You can't just pretend to listen.

I joined Twitter and you read a lot of the comments. You're biting your lip and you want to reply but you know a headline will be made from it and you don't want to give people the satisfaction.

I've never been a fan of just doing. I like to do things for a reason.

When I hear of people who weary of each other, I believe it is because they have sought virtues in themselves alone, attractions of physical beauty. Have they based their love on each other's thoughts? Who can weary of thoughts which change every day?

I don't follow anything blindly. I have to know the entire thing, if I have to get in to it. It might sound funny to you, but it's like using English language. I use an English word only when I know its meaning and understand its connotation. You won't hear me say, 'What's up, dude' or anything like that just for the heck of it.

It is not important for me as a writer that you leave a piece of writing of mine with either an agreement or even a resonance with what I have said. What is important is that you leave with the resonance of what you have felt and what you thought in reaction to that.

What I don't want to do is just play for the sake of playing.

Creating a distraction is a skill we should all have. Never take for granted your ability to spot something interesting out of the corner of you eye and take attention away from your thoughtlessness.

As a bee without harming the flower, its colour or scent, flies away, collecting only the honey, even so should the sage wander in the village.

I think there's an appetite for seriousness. Seriousness is voluptuous, and very few people have allowed themselves the luxury of it.

When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.

I have always endeavoured to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion.

There are writers, and there are readers who want something more. They want to get at the grist of life.

'Free speech' isn't speech at all if it's being used without listening, attention, or care.

You know that something is really well written when you have to think so little about the words that are coming out of your mouth, and you're able to dwell in your own headspace to get there.

It may be added, to prevent misunderstanding, that when I speak of contemplated objects in this last phrase as objects of contemplation, the act of contemplation itself is of course an enjoyment.