Either you're growing or you're decaying; there's no middle ground. If you're standing still, you're decaying.
Alan ArkinRead
I used to watch the world as if it was a performance and I would realize that certain things that people did moved me, and certain things didn't move me, and I tried to analyze, even at that age, six and seven and eight, why I was moved by certain things they did
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the way one observes and is affected by the actions of others.
In this quote, Alan Arkin shares his introspective journey as a child, where he began to notice how certain actions of people around him evoked strong emotional responses while others did not. This observation led him to a deeper understanding of human behavior and his own emotional landscape, illustrating the innate curiosity of humans to analyze their feelings and the motivations behind others' actions.
Themes
ObservationEmotionHuman BehaviorAnalysisPerformance
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about emotional intelligence, you might quote this to illustrate how self-awareness enhances our understanding of others.
More from Alan Arkin
All quotes →If you want to be an actor and you love acting, you can do it whether you're doing something else or not. You can be connected with community theater or make your own little movies. But if you want to be a movie star, you've got a tough road ahead of you.
Alan ArkinRead
Everybody's career has ups and downs. I like to take chances; I don't like to stand still. And I don't give a damn what the market is interested in; I want to try things.
Alan ArkinRead
I don't believe in competitions between artists. This is insane. Who has the authority to say someone is better?
Alan ArkinRead
Every physicist knows that things connect with each other. To isolate things is not the way the universe works - winning best actor is arbitrary.
Alan ArkinRead
I love working if it's with people who are capable of having a good time. People with a little bit of enjoyment of what they do. If it's enormous pressure, and people feel that their lives are at stake, then it's agony. So I try to pick projects where I feel like I'm going to avoid those traps.
Alan ArkinRead
Similar quotes
In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
Pablo CasalsRead
It was behaviour that I thought not far from racism, sexism or any other kind of prejudice or snobbery. 'Because you are not cute, I do not want to know you' was, to me, hardly different from suggesting 'because you are gay, I dislike you
Stephen FryRead
I have an idea heaven will be both absolutely happy and absolutely dark, to protect us from the blaze of God.
Evelyn UnderhillRead
It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.
Golda MeirRead
To deprive a gregarious creature of companionship is to maim it, to outrage its nature. The prisoner and the cenobite are aware that the herd exists beyond their exile; they are an aspect of it. But when the herd no longer exists, there is, for the herd creature, no longer entity, a part of no whole; a freak without a place. If he cannot hold on to his reason, then he is lost indeed; most utterly, most fearfully lost, so that he becomes no more than the twitch in the limb of a corpse.
John WyndhamRead
If there were reason for these miseries, then into limits could I bind my woes. If the winds rages, doth not the sea wax mad, threat'ning the welkin with its big-swoll'n face? And wilt though have a reason for this coil? I am the sea. Hark how her sighs doth blow. She is the weeping welkin, I the earth.
William ShakespeareRead