James A. Michener Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Every animal that walks the earth, or swims, or flies is precious beyond description, something so rare and wonderful that it equals the stars or the ocean or the mind of man.

  James A. Michener

  Stars, Ocean, Animal

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• ...when men ignite in their hearts a religious fury, they inflict at the same time a blindness on their eyes.

  James A. Michener

  Religious, Heart, Eye

  James A. Michener (2013). “The Source: A Novel”, p.803, Dial Press

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• Religious hatreds ought not to be propagated at all, but certainly not on a tax-exempt basis.

  James A. Michener

  Religious, Hatred, Atheism

  James A. Michener (2014). “Report of the County Chairman”, p.64, Dial Press Trade Paperback

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• I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create reasonably decent societies. I think that young people who want to understand the world can profit from the works of Plato and Socrates, the behaviour of the three Thomases, Aquinas, More and Jefferson - the austere analyses of Immanuel Kant and the political leadership of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

  James A. Michener

  Plato, Thinking, People

  "The World Is My Home". Book by James A. Michener, 1991.

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• No invader has ever conquered the heart of Poland, that spirit which is the inheritance of sons and daughters, the private passion of families and the ancient, unbreakable tie to all those who came before.

  James A. Michener

  Daughter, Passion, Heart

  "Poland". Book by James A. Michener, 1983.

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• I was once asked if I'd like to meet the president of a certain country. I said, "No, but I'd love to meet some sheepherders." The sheepherders, farmers and taxi drivers are often the most interesting people.

  James A. Michener

  Country, People, Interesting

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• The sense of belonging is one of the great gifts men get in battle.

  James A. Michener

  Men, Battle, Great Gifts

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• I am always interested in why young people become writers, and from talking with many I have concluded that most do not want to be writers working eight and ten hours a day and accomplishing little; they want to have been writers, garnering the rewards of having completed a best-seller. They aspire to the rewards of writing but not to the travail.

  James A. Michener

  Writing, Eight, Talking

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• I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I'm one of the world's great rewriters.

  James A. Michener

  Writing, World, Want

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• I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

  James A. Michener

  Writing, Swings, Emotion

  Ernest Hemingway, James A. Michener (1986). “The dangerous summer”, Scribner Book Company

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• America is a nation with many flaws, but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them.

  James A. Michener

  Usa, America, Politics

  James A. Michener (1970). “The Quality of Life”

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• All I can do is play the game the way the cards fall.

  James A. Michener

  Fall, Acceptance, Games

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• No man leaves where he is and seeks a distant place unless he is in some respect a failure.

  James A. Michener

  Men

  James A. Michener (2013). “Hawaii: A Novel”, p.112, Dial Press

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• The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation.

  James A. Michener

  Jobs, Writing, Stories

  James A. Michener (2014). “The World Is My Home: A Memoir”, p.17, Dial Press

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• I am terrified of restrictive religious doctrine, having learned from history that when men who adhere to any form of it are in control, common men like me are in peril.

  James A. Michener

  Religious, Men, Atheism

  James A. Michener (2014). “The World Is My Home: A Memoir”, p.283, Dial Press

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• I've spent my life trying to be better than I was, and I am a brother to all who share the same aspiration.

  James A. Michener

  Brother, Trying, Share

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• . . . Luddites were those frenzied traditionalists of the early 19th century who toured [England] wrecking new weaving machines on the theory that if they were destroyed . . . old jobs and old ways of life could be preserved . . . At certain times in his life each man is tempted to become a Luddite, for there is always something he would like to go back to. But to be against all change-against change in the abstract-is folly.

  James A. Michener

  Life, Jobs, Men

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• It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.

  James A. Michener

  Courage, Army, Ought

  James A. Michener (2014). “Sayonara: A Novel”, p.64, Dial Press

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• I would suppose I learned how to write when I was very young indeed. When I read a child's book about the Trojan War and decided that the Greeks were really a bunch of frauds with their tricky horses and the terrible things they did, stealing one another's wives, and so on, so at that very early age, I re-wrote the ending of the Iliad so that the Trojans won. And boy, Achilles and Ajax got what they wanted, believe me. And thereafter, at frequent intervals, I would write something. It was really quite extraordinary. Never of very high merit, but the daringness of it was.

  James A. Michener

  Horse, Children, War

  "Storytelling Phenomenon". The Academy of Achievement interview, www.achievement.org. January 10, 1991.

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• I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.

  James A. Michener

  Writing, Complaining, Tradition

  The Observer, November 26, 1989.

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• No idea is ever dead until those who believe in it say it's dead.

  James A. Michener

  Believe, Ideas, Belief

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• I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description. I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting.

  James A. Michener

  Ocean, Moon, Islands

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• The chief character in this narrative is the Caribbean Sea, one of the world's most alluring bodies of water, a rare gem among the oceans, defined by the islands that form a chain of lovely jewels to the north and east

  James A. Michener

  Ocean, Character, Sea

  James A. Michener (2014). “Caribbean: A Novel”, p.24, Dial Press

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• I feel myself the inheritor of a great background of people. Just who, precisely, they were, I have never known. I might be part Negro, might be part Jew, part Muslim, part Irish. So I can't afford to be supercilious about any group of people because I may be that people.

  James A. Michener

  People, Groups, May

  CNN obituary, October 17, 1997.

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• Writers turn dreams into print.

  James A. Michener

  Dream, Print, Turns

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