David Mitchell Quotes - Page 6

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• I think all writers of my age who are brought up on films probably by the age of 16 have seen many more films than they have read classics of literature. We can't help but be influenced by film. Film has got some great tricks that it's taught writers.

  David Mitchell

  Thinking, Age, Literature

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• Secrets affect you more than you’d think. You lie to keep them hidden. You steer talk away from them. You worry someone’ll discover yours and tell the world. You think you are in charge of the secret, but isn’t it the secret who’s actually using you?

  David Mitchell

  Lying, Thinking, Worry

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• Ive never had cocaine. I work in showbusiness and no one has ever offered me cocaine. Can you believe that? It makes me worry Im not always the life and soul of the party that I feel like in my head.

  David Mitchell

  Party, Believe, Worry

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• I still haven't quite got used to eating live fish.

  David Mitchell

  Eating, Used, Fishes

  "What's in your basket?". Interview with Olivia Gordon, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2007.

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• Wars do not combust without warning. They begin as little fires over the horizon. Wars approach. A wise man watches for the smoke, and prepares to vacate the neighborhood, just like Ayrs and Jocasta. My worry is that the next war will be so big, nowhere with a decent restaurant will be left untouched.

  David Mitchell

  Wise, War, Men

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.442, Random House Group

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• Beyond the Indian hamlet, upon a forlorn strand, I happened on a trail of recent footprints.

  David Mitchell

  Footprint, Forlorn, Trails

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.8, Random House Group

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• I rarely ever put my head above the rampart and see where this big lumbering behemoth called 'global literature' is going.

  David Mitchell

  Literature, Bigs, Behemoth

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• I think the story is the most ancient form of human entertainment.

  David Mitchell

  Thinking, Stories, Entertainment

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• I think it's natural for youth to be drawn to newness: The world is still new for them.

  David Mitchell

  Thinking, World, Youth

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• Leaves turned to soil beneath my feet. Thus it is, trees eat themselves.

  David Mitchell

  Feet, Tree, Soil

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.182, Random House Group

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• Don't bemoan your misspent life quite yet. Forgive me for flaunting my experience, but you have no conception of what a misspent life constitutes.

  David Mitchell

  Forgive Me, Forgiving, Flaunting

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.98, Random House Group

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• Implausible truth can serve one better than plausible fiction

  David Mitchell

  Fiction, Plausible

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.53, Random House Group

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• It'll be all right." Julia's gentleness makes it worse. "In the end, Jace." "It doesn't feel very all right." "That's because it's not the end.

  David Mitchell

  Jace, Ends, Feels

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• The world never stops unmaking what the world never stops making. But who says the world has to make sense?

  David Mitchell

  World, Make Sense

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• I understand now that boundaries between noise and sound are conventions. All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so.

  David Mitchell

  Waiting, Sound, Atlas

  "Fictional character: Robert Frobisher". "Cloud Atlas", 2012.

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• Write something every single day, even if it's just three lines. And it doesn't matter if it's any good - just write something every day.

  David Mitchell

  Writing, Three, Lines

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• I think words operate like musical notes that the eyeball hears.

  David Mitchell

  Thinking, Musical, Notes

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• I think we think in terms of stories.

  David Mitchell

  Thinking, Stories, Term

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• In the 1970s and 1980s there was so little decent fiction for young people, but we're now in a golden age that shows no sign of fading. Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket are only three of the best known among a good number of equals.

  David Mitchell

  Numbers, People, Age

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• Any adaptation is a translation, and there is such a thing as an unreadably faithful translation; and I believe a degree of reinterpretatio n for the new language may be not only inevitable but desirable.

  David Mitchell

  Believe, Faithful, Degrees

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• Perhaps all human interaction is about wanting and getting.

  David Mitchell

  Interaction, Humans

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• A life can get knocked into a new orbit by a car crash, a lottery win or just a bleary-eyed consultant giving bad news in a calm voice.

  David Mitchell

  Winning, Voice, Giving

  "Once upon a life: David Mitchell" by David Mitchell, www.theguardian.com. May 8, 2010.

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• I got a rejection letter from an editor at HarperCollins, who included a report from his professional reader. This report shredded my first-born novel, laughed at my phrasing, twirled my lacy pretensions around and gobbed into the seething mosh pit of my stolen clichés. As I read the report, the world became very quiet and stopped rotating. What poisoned me was the fact that the report's criticisms were all absolutely true. The sound of my landlady digging in the garden got the world moving again. I slipped the letter into the trash... knowing I'd remember every word.

  David Mitchell

  Moving, Writing, Garden

  "Once upon a life" by David Mitchell, www.theguardian.com. May 8, 2010.

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• Sometimes, comics will make the observation that it's not jokes that are funny, it's characters that are funny. And isn't that true! That's why I always kill jokes. I'm terrible at them, because I get the joke right, but I can't get the character right, and it just goes down like a lead balloon.

  David Mitchell

  Character, Balloons, Sometimes

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• I'm not from a milieu where high-register language or philosophical ideas were welcome.

  David Mitchell

  Philosophical, Ideas, Welcome

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