The final test of a work of art is not whether it has beauty, but whether it has power. — John Hersey Copy Share Image
When the writing is really working, I think there is something like dreaming going on. I don't know how to draw the line between the conscious management of what you're doing and this state. . . . I would say that it's related to daydreaming. When I feel really engaged with a passage, I become so lost in it that… — John Hersey Copy Share
Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginning of education. — John Hersey Copy Share Image
The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does it… — John Hersey Copy Share Image
“Mankind must destroy anti-humanity before it becomes extinct itself.” — John Hersey Copy Share Image
“This private estate was far enough away from the explosion so that its bamboos, pines, laurel, and maples were still alive, and the green place invited refugees—partly because they believed that if the Americans came back, they would bomb only buildings; partly because the foliage seemed a center of coolness and life, and the estate’s exquisitely precise rock gardens, with… — John Hersey Copy Share
And, as if nature were protecting man against his own ingenuity, the reproductive processes were affected for a time; men became sterile, women had… — John Hersey Copy Share Image
To my great surprise, I never heard anyone cry out in the disorder, even though they suffered in great agony. They died in silence,… — John Hersey Copy Share Image
“…she looked like Vivien, the Lady of the Lake, only she was fat and her lake was dust, sand and dust, bones and dust… — John Hersey Copy Share Image
The writer must not invent. The legend on the license must read: NONE OF THIS WAS MADE UP. — John Hersey Copy Share Image
Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it. — John Hersey Copy Share Image
The third stage was the reaction that came when the body struggled to compensate for its ills - when, for instance, the white count… — John Hersey Copy Share Image
The first stage had been all over before the doctors even knew they were dealing with a new sickness; it was the direct reaction… — John Hersey Copy Share Image
