Quotes About Really Listening

#1. Years ago, I tried to top everybody, but I don't anymore. I realized it was killing conversation. When you're always trying for a topper you aren't really listening. It ruins communication

Groucho Marx

#2. I want to tell him more, too. I always want to tell him more, but now that I know he's listening- really listening- it means something different.

David Levithan

#3. Unfortunately, many people are not really listening to you, but are calculating a reply that outshines you.

Charles F. Glassman

#4. There's a certain type of indie fan who would balk at the prospect of there being value in pop music, but I think that's foolish. They're not really listening.

Autre Ne Veut

#5. Church was the thing for me. The fellowship and the message that was given and singing in the choir and singing the solos and really listening to the words that you were singing and seeing how it affected people was huge for me.

DeLisha Milton-Jones

#6. It's safe to talk openly and honestly with people because they're not really listening.

Chuck Lorre

#7. If you lead a team, start asking questions and really listening. Start valuing the contributions of your teammates ahead of your own. And remember that when the best idea wins, so does the entire team.

John C. Maxwell

#8. When I am able to be present, listening - really listening - to a viewpoint described through someone else's lens, I am here in the now and alive.

Tori Amos

#9. Promise One: Love and listen to my father. This whole time I've been obeying his every word, following all the rules, saying all the right things. But I never did what he really wanted all along.
Because I was never really listening.

Jackson Pearce

#10. If you're really listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so it can hold evermore wonders. -Andrew Harvey

Rob Brezsny

#11. Look at the product pipeline, look at the fantastic financial results we've had for the last five years. You only get that kind of performance on the innovation side, on the financial side, if you're really listening and reacting to the best ideas of the people we have.

Steve Ballmer

#12. The key ingredient in family communication is listening, really listening.

Zig Ziglar

#13. I grew up not really listening to guitar players. Especially when I was studying music, I was just interested in piano players and arrangers and composers; I came to playing in a band from the perspective of someone who never expected to play guitar in a band.

Daniel Rossen

#14. Most believe that the key to influence is communication - getting your point across clearly and speaking persuasively. In fact, if you think about it, don't you find that, while others are speaking to you, instead of really listening to understand, you are often busy preparing your response?

Stephen R. Covey

#15. I admit, I do a lot of projects, but it's because I'm in a position now where I'm reading a lot more scripts and plays and things, and I'm really listening to offers and trying to think what I want to do at any given time.

Bryan Cranston

#16. One of the first albums that I remember, rap albums I remember really listening to, was LL Cool J 'Mama Said Knock You Out.'

Damian Marley

#17. Staying healthy is about really listening to your mind and body. They will both let you know when you're doing things the right way for you. And when you're not. You just need to be honest with yourself and listen to what they're saying.

Adam Rodriguez

#18. Target is one of the best at really listening to the artist and understanding what they are about.

Christina Aguilera

#19. With real relationship within, you are as delicateness really listening.

John De Ruiter

#20. It's a major part of world history that men are trying to kill each other. It's just one slaughter after the other. We talk about it, but no one's really listening.

Fred Ward

#21. Are you really listening ... or are you just waiting for your turn to talk?

Robert Montgomery

#22. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from out friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going. He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery.

C.S. Lewis

#23. In a nutshell though, it's just all about opening up to the people that really care about my career and really listening to everybody who is listening to me. It's just made me stronger, to really be able to open up that door and listen to everybody else's opinions.

Raekwon

#24. The whole period has taught me that I enjoy being part of an ensemble rather than just a front man. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy that too, but I get more enjoyment out of really listening to everyone.

Damon Albarn

#25. From the moment we wake up each morning to the time we hit the pillow at night, we hear what people have to say, but are we really listening?

Mac Anderson

#26. As it is, I'm Elizabeth DeVille, super spy and resident poor girl, and watching him out of the corner of my eye will have to do. I nod at something my best friend Suri is saying to me, feeling like a shitty friend because I'm not really listening.

Ella James

#27. Sometimes when we say things, we hear silence. Or only echoes. Like screaming from inside. And that's really lonely. But that only happens when we weren't really listening. It means we weren't ready to listen yet. Because every time we speak, there is a voice. There is the world that answers back.

Ava Dellaira

#28. No one can have an idea once he starts really listening.

John Cage

#29. If you listen to really deep ambient records that don't move too much, very still records, long after those records are finished, you might find yourself listening for hours to the sound of the room.

Bill Laswell

#30. I think a lot of the instincts you have doing comedy are really the same for doing drama, in that it's essentially about listening. The way I approach comedy, is you have to commit to everything as if it's a dramatic role, meaning you play it straight.

Will Ferrell

#31. Influences come from everywhere. I don't really feel like I had too many influences for the first record because I grew up listening to music in church, and that was pretty much it. I didn't really grow up listening to AC/DC and all those bands.

Avril Lavigne

#32. It's not like I listened to music and then stopped. I still don't have a real appreciation for music because I didn't really start listening to it until my 20s.

Kumail Nanjiani

#33. I find the songs I want to record by listening to as much music as I can. 'When I hear things I really like, I ask the writers to send me a tape of everything they've ever written.

Alison Krauss

#34. I was too stubborn to really take on what she was saying. But we're all guilty sometimes of only listening to what we want to hear.

Lesley Pearse

#35. I really like listening to music when I'm hiking or exercising. I don't like hearing myself breathe.

Rebecca Romijn

#36. I suppose because I have a good ear, I could pick out harmonies and learn by ear. I still think that you have to have an ear for music to really be able to feel and understand what you're playing. You can learn by watching and listening to other people.

Mick Taylor

#37. Besides singing "Jump Around" to all the WWE superstars in the locker room? Uh ... I enjoy listening to music, pumping up, and getting really muscular and oily. I like to oil myself before.

The Miz

#38. As a really young child, I was listening to the echoes of the age before, music hall and stuff like that, as well as classical bits on the radio.

Roy Harper

#39. Obviously the people that I admired, like the Beatles, were really into rock'n'roll, but it was already a little past rock'n'roll when I started listening and making my own choices about music.

Elvis Costello

#40. Starting out really punk came from not knowing any better and listening to music like that, not knowing how to play music - well, still not knowing how to play music.

Beth Ditto

#41. I know that my fans will probably learn a lot about me by listening to my music, if they really listen to the lyrics.

Ariana Grande

#42. I've never really taken myself too serious. That's everybody else, listening to the music or whatever. I've always said what I've felt, said what I thought was right, but I've always had a comedic bone.

Ice Cube

#43. I got really tired of metal music. How do you pick what's good to sell when you're not totally into what you're listening to and marketing?

Blake Judd

#44. I'm perfectly gregarious, but I can also be really happy left to my own devices with nobody watching me or listening to me.

Lindsay Duncan

#45. Most people in the world don't really use their brains to think. And people who don't think are the ones who don't listen to others.

Haruki Murakami

#46. Indeed? Pardon me for not listening further but I am really on an urgent errand.

Frank Herbert

#47. I don't think of myself as a folk singer per se, but I really like blues and string-band music. When I started listening to records when I was a teenager, the folk boom was going on.

Loudon Wainwright III

#48. People. You're not crazy if there really are robot insects listening to every word you say."

Someone said, "I fucking told you

Warren Ellis

#49. The audience plays a huge part in how a piece will actually form. They really allow the performers to walk a tightrope in a way that never seems to happen in the privacy of your own four walls. I'm listening to the audience, and they're listening to me.

Evelyn Glennie

#50. He's awake and listening to us," said the old woman. "Sly little rascal." She chuckled. "But royalty has need of slyness. And if he's really the Kwisatz Haderach ... well ... .

Frank Herbert

#51. Before I was 5, I did have a lot of time on my hands. I had no job and really no career, and I spent an awful lot of time listening to records. It was more the classical ones, really - Prokofiev, and I think there was some Mozart in there, and more impressionistic composers like Delius.

Wallace Shawn

#52. If I said who I was influenced by, it would be really weird and pretentious because it would be people who have nothing to do with what I do. From a listening perspective, there's just something in their playing that I'm inspired by.

Sam Amidon

#53. I was aiming for the cooks that I've talked to by teaching an online course and by traveling, listening to people who are really busy and harried but want to be cooking.

Sally Schneider

#54. In the theatre, once you've gone about eight rows back, everybody else is just listening to you. You're very small, and nobody can really see what you're doing.

Francesca Annis

#55. I love working with customers. Sales has really influenced everything I do. It has instilled in me the important traits of operating with a sense of urgency and listening to people.

Jeffrey R. Immelt

#56. I had trouble listening to adults who didn't really mean anything that they said; it was as if their language poured into my ears only to drain right out a little spigot in the back of my head.

Reif Larsen

#57. I was really interested to see whether we could make predictions or forecasts by listening in on what people were saying on social media.

Noreena Hertz

#58. I think that when you follow Christ, one of the things that happens when you start listening to His voice is that you really are alone.

Mike Yaconelli

#59. What I want to do is, I want to put together a nice list of those guys who I really did admire when I was growing up, listening to names like Lord Finesse.

John Cena

#60. It's like someone who prays every night saying God's a good listener. Just because you're talking to us doesn't mean we're listening. With me and God, you never really know.

Paul Neilan

#61. You really should do some research for a change instead of just listening to the voices in your head.

John Ringo

#62. My husband works in the music industry and he's always the first to know about great new bands, so I end up seeming really with it because I'll be listening to an up-and-coming band before everyone else hears about it.

Gail Simmons

#63. I know that people everywhere listen to hip-hop, but especially being from the South, you really get that influence. You go out, you party, and it's just always there. Also, I grew up listening and loving reggae music, too.

Kat Dahlia

#64. Nothing had been attempted like that, to lift Dad's voice, literally, off of that track and put it on a brand-new one, and then line it up, match it up, get the phrasing right. I remember listening - everyone listening at the end, and we were just enthralled. It was really wonderful.

Natalie Cole

#65. I think commercial success is really important. It means there are more people listening, and you're affecting the zeitgeist more. If only a hundred people know you exist, it's harder to get your message across.

Courtney Love

#66. I often find myself listening to a record because a lot of people or magazines have told me it's good and I'm supposed to like it, and I try to stay in touch with what's happening and I'm also a fan of music. I find myself trying to like something that I really don't think is that great.

Trent Reznor

#67. You really should be able to feel the higher power of music and be moved by it, rather than listening to me waffle on and having to explain it.

Maynard James Keenan

#68. I've been kind of listening to the composer Britten and his rendition of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' The opening track is a choral section where all the weird fairies, who are played by kids in the production, sing. It's a crazy opening melody and chord sequence - really amazing.

Dev Hynes

#69. For a songwriter, you don't really go to songwriting school; you learn by listening to tunes. And you try to understand them and take them apart and see what they're made of, and wonder if you can make one, too.

Tom Waits

#70. I don't know, on a sitcom, and in theatre especially, you have to really be listening to an audience. And if you're losing them, you can hear the sniffs, and the playbills shuffling and whatnot.

Neil Patrick Harris

#71. If someone's really busy listening to other CDs, and worried about what's new and what's truly relevant for discourse now, maybe it isn't that interesting. To me it is, because I'm tuned into that and that's what I like, so it's interesting to me. It's all I can do.

Stephen Malkmus

#72. It's not really fun listening to an insane person. Do you realize that? You're only entertaining yourself. Not much of a host, if you don't mind my critique.

Jaron Lee Knuth

#73. More and more as time has gone on, I realize that playing is really more about listening than it is about playing.

Pat Metheny

#74. You know, I have come to think listening is love, that's what it really is.

Brenda Ueland

#75. I've learned 90 percent of what I know from watching and listening to actors. A good leading actor is the rock of the show. Their energy and their tone really sets the groundwork for how everything is going to work. I've been lucky to deal with stars who are very giving and generous.

Finn Wittrock

#76. Most humans, they seem to prattle on about this and that, not even really seeming to care about what they are saying so long as someone is listening.

Shanon Mayer

#77. It was very hard to get any records, so the only source for us to really hear what was happening was listening to the Voice of America. We would be taping all the broadcast and then sharing the tapes and talking about it.

Jan Hammer

#78. Everybody who really wants to knows what's true. Most people just don't want to. It means listening from deep inside. Most people just don't want to. But the special people listen. You can hear what's true, inside. Listen.

David Foster Wallace

#79. A lot of times nerds are really artists listening to the beat of another drummer.

Roseanne Barr

#80. Growing up, I didn't really like folk music - I wasn't a fan of Bob Dylan. I grew up mostly listening to rap and hip-hop; it was this new form of music.

Max Casella

#81. Listening now, it occured to me that I hadn't come very far over the yars -- no farther really than from one "gang bang" to another, save that I had learned, as B. had yet to learn, that tomorrow the pain would be even greater.

Frederick Exley

#82. We should really synchronize our listening to Ummagumma so we can both freak out at the same time.

Sienna McQuillen

#83. I think my favourite song on the album [Second Hand Rapture'] is 'Head Is Not My Home', I love the vocal melody and it's such a power hit of a track. Every time it pops on I like listening to it, I'm really drawn to it.

Lizzy Plapinger

#84. I grew up watching Lindsay and it made me want to do what she does. Just the whole vibe. Being there, being on camera, or on stage, with everybody listening to you it's so cool when people look up to you. I've already been asked for my autograph and it's just a really good feeling to have.

Ali Lohan

#85. I don't know if everybody does, but I have a really hard time listening to myself on recordings, unless we've spent weeks and weeks and weeks listening and mixing.

Katherine Shindle

#86. I'm always curious about anyone who has enough passion to go onstage and say, 'This is what I'm really passionate about.' It's always worth listening to.

Clemence Poesy

#87. Well, I didn't really grow up playing or listening to metal, like many of the kids I went to school with. I only got into it in my late teens, so when Marilyn Manson formed, it was at a time when I was still excited about approaching music from that angle.

Daisy Berkowitz

#88. Like maybe he really, truly believes I'm worth listening to, worth saving.

Matthew Quick

#89. My approach with actors is to try and give them whatever it is they need from me. Direction to me is about listening and responding and realizing how much they need to know from me and how much they have figured out for themselves, really.

Christopher Nolan

#90. When I think about putting together an album, the process of listening to hundreds of songs each time and picking out the best 10 or so that will go on the record, it really sinks in as to just how many songs I've listened to all these years.

George Strait

#91. And now I'm really, really, really tired and I want to fall asleep listening to someone tell me how much they like me and how pretty I am and stuff. That's all I want. And when I wake up, I'll be full of energy and I'll never make these kinds of selfish demands again. I swear. I'll be a good girl.

Haruki Murakami

#92. I loved music - listening and playing - but of course I could not imagine I would be a professional musician. It really happened step by step.

Rokia Traore

#93. I get my dance moves from just moving around and listening to music and not really worrying about if it's perfect or not.

Ellen DeGeneres

#94. There's this freshness that happens within the first few takes of the actors actually listening to each other and actually really reacting.

Jennifer Lawrence

#95. There's this Ryan Gosling quote that I steal all the time - I watched an interview with him in Cannes - and he said picking roles is like listening to songs on the radio: There can be a lot of really great songs in a row, but then one comes on that just makes you want to dance.

Emma Stone

#96. It's uncomfortable, definitely, but it's also really, really great to talk drums with kids and hear them get excited about music and talk about listening to the drums.

Patty Schemel

#97. She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives just for a minute while they talked round her.

Katherine Mansfield

#98. My main influence is - it's music. It lifts the spirit. I am always listening to music. And sometimes what inspires me is a little sound or some small arrangement. I really do listen to music continuously all day long - very loud, so people can't stand to be around me anymore.

Donatella Versace

#99. My mother had a great vinyl collection, and she was constantly playing female singer-songwriters. I first learned about classic song structures by listening to them, and Laura Nyro particularly stood out. Her voice was outside what you'd usually hear on the radio; that really appealed to me.

Jenny Lewis

#100. When I was growing up and listening to bands like the Dave Clark Five, the groove was what initially got me going. I really like that funky, heavy groove.

Eddie Van Halen