James A. Michener Quotes

66 quotes in 1260 categories

• Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today because if you enjoy it today, you can do it again tomorrow.
• It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.
• I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.
• When I was a child in the Navy during World War II, I was perennially grateful to the armed services libraries for having on hand…
• As a younger man I wrote for eight years without ever earning a nickel which is a long apprenticeship, but in that time I learned…
• 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…
• 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…
• The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation.
• You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.
• I write at eighty-five for the same reasons that impelled me to write at forty-five; I was born with a passionate desire to communicate, to…
• The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.
• Creative geniuses are a slap-happy lot. Treat Them with respect.
• The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.
• Being goal-oriented instead of self-oriented is crucial. I know so many people who want to be writers. But let me tell you, they really don't…
• 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…
• The dead are dead but they rely on us to fulfill their hopes.
• Rampaging horsemen can conquer; only the city can civilize.
• I wondered how a man ever got an English girl into bed. What did they do with her hockey stick?
• About a billion years ago, long before the continents had separated to define the ancient oceans, or their own outlines had been determined, a small…
• I was surprised when shortly after New Year's Day of 1983, the Governor of Texas summoned me to his office, because I hadn't been aware…

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