#defensive

Why on earth do you carry a mirror around with you?” “It's purely a defensive device. We seldom quarrel, and this is one of the reasons. Can you imagine yourself getting all worked up and contorted and illogical and then coming face to face with yourself, looking at yourself exactly as you look to everyone else? ↗

— Theodore Sturgeon

#anger #anger-management #defence #defensive-device #mirror

The greatest thing I learned while taking classes at Second City was the very first thing they taught: 'Yes, and...'. In improv, you keep scenes alive but accepting whatever you are given and then adding to it or amplifying it. There is no space on stage for 'No,' 'I'm sorry, you're mistaken,' or 'Yes, but...'. Those transitions kill energy, set up interpersonal conflict, engage the ego in a defensive posture, and stymie the flow of conversation onstage. ↗

— Jason Seiden

#defensiveness #good-advice #improv #interpersonal-communication #interpersonal-relationships

I stopped hating and started just being. My whole life, I had been the most defensive person you'd meet, unable to tolerate any criticism. But now I started listening and being. ↗

— Anthony Kiedis

#defensiveness #listening #life

Everyone these days was defensive about their lives. Everyone had settled. ↗

— Lorrie Moore

#people-today #settling #life

Everything has changed. An interview has become such a confrontational thing. It makes you very defensive. ↗

— Francesca Annis

#changed #confrontational #defensive #everything #interview

It actually took me a year to learn how to play running back - to understand what they were doing defensively and then what our guys were doing every single play. ↗

— Marcus Allen

#back #defensively #doing #every #guys

There's a general sense that women are more relaxed and less defensive in comedy than they used to be. I think it's easier than it was but underlying it all there is still a pretty sexist view of women on stage, which to me hasn't changed that much. ↗

— Jo Brand

#comedy #defensive #easier #general #general sense

Some actors don't mind it. Those who are pretty. They think it's nice to be looked at because they are nice to look at. I appreciate that. I'm very happy to salute that aspiration. But I don't like the way I look so I don't like being photographed. I become defensive. ↗

— Richard Griffiths

#aspiration #because #become #being #defensive

Often there is a wall between the journalist and the star because there is usually not much time to get to know a person, and the star is always asked the same questions, and may be defensive. ↗

— Ruud Gullit

#asked #because #between #defensive #get

Cole envisioned the next few weeks passing as a sort of painless montage: there'd be music, and different moments of the townspeople hard at work building a defensive wall around the perimeter of the town, and digging holes to serve as traps, and training with the few weapons they had. There'd be a wiping of perspiration and drinks raised to one another and the exchange of friendly smiles between comrades, and perhaps deeper, more meaningful glances between him and MaryAnn. But by midmorning of the first day, Cole had come to the unavoidable conclusion that the remainder of the experience would in fact drag on in exceedingly real time, with lots of heaving and hoing and digging and hauling under the hot sun, full of the kind of intense straining that raised the danger of a really spectacular hernia. And, judging from the few tense conversations he'd had so far, he foresaw a series of increasingly strident arguments with Nora regarding matters strategic. Plus, of course, at the end of all this effort they'd all probably be dead. ↗

— Michael Rubens

#defensive-fortifications #montage #real-time #seven-samurai-homage #strategy