In the ideal sense nothing is uninteresting; there are only uninterested people.

Atkinson’s aphorism shifts responsibility for boredom from the world to the observer. It suggests that “interest” is not an inherent property of events, objects, or people, but a product of attention, curiosity, and imaginative engagement. In an “ideal sense,” everything can yield meaning—if one brings the right questions, patience, and openness. The line also carries an ethical edge: dismissing something as “uninteresting” may reveal a failure of empathy or intellectual effort. As a critic and cultural commentator, Atkinson implies a standard for cultivated perception: the more awake and receptive the mind, the more inexhaustible the world becomes.