My family was totally non-religious. There was no question we were Jewish, but we were not observant.
I guess I'm just quite observant and I pay attention to a lot of things. Human behavior really fascinates me.
The good Jew is ritually observant and resists assimilation, in some sense living apart, never fitting comfortably into American or any other society.
Being in a rock n' roll group, or being a musician, it is in conflict in some serious cultural ways with being an observant Jew, but in a conceptual way, for me, they go together real well.
Even though I'm laughing all the time, I'm watching all the time. I was observant and I got to learn people easy like that. So, I learn people good.
Elaine Equi has been publishing her observant, often playful poetry for some 30 years, extending and deepening the range of her intrinsically wry voice.
I like being Jewish and I married a Jewish girl. It's like a way of life and it's good to be able to instil some of that sense of being in your kids. All of that makes me seem as though I am quite observant but actually the flipside of this is I don't know if there is a God or not.
No formal course in fiction-writing can equal a close and observant perusal of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe or Ambrose Bierce.
I'm very observant. I see more than people think I'm seeing.
Your protagonist is your reader's portal into the story. The more observant he or she can be, the more vivid will be the world you're creating. They don't have to be super-educated, they just have to be mentally active. Keep them looking, thinking, wondering, remembering.
