David Mitchell Quotes - Page 5

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I have always unswervingly held, that God, in our civilizing world, manifests Himself not in the miracles of biblical age, but in progress. It is progress that leads humanity up the ladder towards the God-head. No Jacob's ladder this, no, but rather Civilization's Ladder, if you will.

David Mitchell

Biblical, Civilization, Miracle

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.487, Random House

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Mother used to say escape is never further than the nearest book. Well, Mumsy, no, not really. Your beloved large-print sagas of rags, riches, and heartbreak were no camouflage against the miseries trained on you by the tennis ball launcher of life, were they? But, yes, Mum, there again, you have a point. Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.

David Mitchell

Mother, Real, Book

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.357, Random House

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Do ants get headaches?

David Mitchell

Ants, Headache

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Teachers're always using that "in your own words." I hate that. Authors knit their sentences tight. It's their job. Why make us unpick them, just to put it back together more shonkily? How're you s'posed to say Kapellmeister if you can't say Kapellmeister?

David Mitchell

Teacher, Jobs, Hate

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Often I think boys don’t become men. Boys just get papier-mâchéd inside a man’s mask. Sometimes you can tell the boy is still in there.

David Mitchell

Boys, Men, Thinking

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There are so many cities in every single city.

David Mitchell

Cities

David Mitchell (2008). “Ghostwritten”, p.106, Hachette UK

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How could I know a famished heart will eat its mind? Can kill its body?

David Mitchell

Heart, Mind, Body

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I remain thankful to God for all his mercies.

David Mitchell

Thankful To God, Mercy

David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.504, Random House Group

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We are both busy people, so let's cut the small talk.

David Mitchell

Cutting, People, Busy

David Mitchell (2007). “Number9Dream: A Novel”, p.7, Random House

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If only,’ Shiroyama dreams, ‘human beings were not masks behind masks behind masks. If only this world was a clean board of lines and intersections. If only time was a sequence of considered moves and not a chaos of slippages and blunders.

David Mitchell

Dream, Moving, Boards

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I've become a less brave traveller since I became a dad, but in the past I was more foolhardy than brave.

David Mitchell

Dad, Past, Brave

"Finding the route of inspiration". Interview with Carl Wilkinson, www.theguardian.com. April 17, 2005.

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Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword.

David Mitchell

President, Generations, Myopic

"Cloud Atlas". Book by David Mitchell (p. 528), 2004.

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I elbowed my way into the grubby café, bought a pie that tasted of shoe polish and a pot of tea with cork crumbs floating in it, and eavesdropped on a pair of Shetland pony breeders. Despondency makes one hanker after lives one never led. Why have you given your life to books, TC? Dull, dull, dull! The memoirs are bad enough, but all that ruddy fiction! Hero goes on a journey, stranger comes to town, somebody wants something, they get it or they don't, will is pitted against will. "Admire me, for I am a metaphor.

David Mitchell

Book, Hero, Journey

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.169, Random House

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As an experienced editor, I disapprove of flashbacks, foreshadowings, and tricksy devices; they belong in the 1980s with M.A.s in postmodernism and chaos theory.

David Mitchell

Editors, Chaos, Theory

David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.155, Random House Group

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As long as our civilisation keeps trundling along generally forwards, then there is the possibility of a future where ethnicity is merely an interesting badge, not a uniform you can't take off.

David Mitchell

Ethnicity, Long, Interesting

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I can't bear living in this huge beautiful world and not try to imitate it as best I can.

David Mitchell

Beautiful, Trying, World

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Strip back the beliefs pasted on by governesses, schools, and states, you find indelible truths at one's core.

David Mitchell

School, Belief, States

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.471, Random House

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If, by happiness, you mean the absence of adversity I and all fabricants are the happiest stratum in corpocracy as genomicists insist. However, if happiness means the conquest of adversity or a sense of purpose, or the xercise of one’s will to power, then of all Nea So Copros’s slaves we surely are the most miserable.

David Mitchell

Mean, Adversity, Purpose

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.188, Random House

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... in a cycle as old as tribalism, ignorance of the Other engenders fear; fear engenders hatred; hatred engenders violence; violence engenders further violence until the only "rights", the only law, are whatever is willed by the most powerful.

David Mitchell

Powerful, Fear, Ignorance

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.344, Random House

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The weak are meat the strong do eat.

David Mitchell

Strong, Meat, Weak

David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.501, Random House Group

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Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible.

David Mitchell

Inspiring, Atlas, Kick Ass

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Probably" is a word with an emergency ejector seat.

David Mitchell

Emergencies, Seats

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I added 'writers' to my list of people not to trust. They make everything up.

David Mitchell

People, Lists

David Mitchell (2007). “Ghostwritten”, p.145, Vintage

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I feel like something important has happened to me. Is this possible?

David Mitchell

Important, Atlas, Feels

"Fictional character: Isaac Sachs". "Cloud Atlas", www.imdb.com. September 8, 2012.

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To fool a judge, feign fascination, but to bamboozle the whole court, feign boredom.

David Mitchell

Boredom, Judging, Fascination

David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.40, Random House Group

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Born: January 12, 1969
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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