The creature most interesting to a dog is another dog. The being most interesting to a child is another child. The people most interesting to people are other people.

Our favorite disability is blindness, because we think we can stare at the blind without them knowing it.

Kids love to spy on adults. They’d spy on kids but the other kids are on to them.

The sweet thing about walking is that you get to be a fly on the wall; you witness what others won’t. The drivers don’t see you – stop wasting your time on dayglo vests and street markings and instead attend to what the car operators are doing (that’s why we want brake light indicators on the fronts of cars).

People-watching and eavesdropping are public forms of entertainment. They are easily enjoyed at airports and on sidewalks in pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, in buses and on trains. Those venues offer more interesting fare than shopping malls and concert halls and amusement parks but these places aren’t bad either.

I used to scoff when I heard of a writer who got a story idea from listening to the kids talk in the back seat of her van, while she ferried them to afterschool activities. I thought, “That’s almost a waste of time, compared to what you can overhear teenagers discussing in the Elmwood, or city kids doing on the 1 California bus.” But the fact is, you find news or gossip items where you happen to be, and the trick is to pay close and clear attention.

When you look at the development of the novel, you’ll see that the form is all about gossip, spying, and eavesdropping. A good novel is an opportunity to take that comfortable perch on the wall, and watch other people live.

It seems to me, but this is just my opinion, that it’s a better use of my time to go outside and watch and listen and try to record what I witness, than to screen reality shows or read tabloids.