#attention

No TV, no acting for me. I'm kind of a more behind-the-scenes kind of woman even though what I do is very public. I'm really low-key and I don't need to be the center of attention. ↗

— Venus Williams

#attention #center #even #i #i do

We can learn to pay attention, concentrate, devote ourselves to authors. We can slow down so we can hear the voice of texts, feel the movement of sentences, experience the pleasure of words--and own passages that speak to us. (p. 41) ↗

— Thomas Newkirk

#reading #writing #art

In a variation on James's recipe for interesting experience--the familiar leavened by the novel--Hobbs's "art of choosing difficulties" requires selecting projects that are "just manageable." If an activity is too easy, you lose focus and get bored. If it's too hard, you become anxious, overwhelmed, and unable to concentrate. Tellingly, one group is distinguished by its zeal for the kind of work that requires you to give it all you've got: high achievers particularly relish taking on risky projects that have only a 50/50 chance of success. ↗

— Winifred Gallagher

#attention #focus #art

During the winter my attention was attracted to the changes in the stars and planets in the sky. ↗

— Paul Nurse

#attracted #changes #during #planets #sky

Let us come to the philosophers, whose authority is of greater weight, and their judgment more to be relied on, because they are believed to have paid attention, not to matters of fiction, but to the investigation of the truth. ↗

— Lactantius

#authority #because #believed #come #fiction

At 6:30, which was when the national news began, my father raised the volume and adjusted the antennas. Usually I occupied myself with a book, but that night my father insisted that I pay attention. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#attention #began #book #father #i

My father was the king of the joke-tellers. I was so impressed as a child watching him, holding people in rapt attention. ↗

— Carol Leifer

#child #father #him #holding #i

I've always known and been interested in people who are a little bit off the norm. I like to call attention to the idea that they are there, that they are real people, not invisible. ↗

— Charles de Lint

#attention #been #bit #call #i

When one of my characters becomes aware of a magical element, it might be because the world is wider than we assume it to be, but it might also be a reminder to pay attention to what is here already, hidden only because it's been forgotten. ↗

— Charles de Lint

#also #assume #attention #aware #because

Far too often we see attention paid to the firearm and not the criminal. ↗

— Jeff Miller

#criminal #far #often #paid #see