Demille Quotes & Sayings

Now, public libraries are most admirable institutions, but they have one irritating custom. They want their books back. — Cecil B. DeMille

A lot of our perception of history is influenced by inaccurate movies. — Nelson DeMille

The next step is for the great teachers to arise, and for them to clearly understand the challenges ahead and mentor accordingly. Where most generations focus the education of their children on preparing to make a living or succeed financially, leadership generations are taught by parents who see a higher role for their children. — Oliver DeMille

I might have remembered what my father once wrote to Henry George, I never do anything by halves, and am half hearted in no cause that I embrace. — Cecil B. DeMille

After more than sixty years of almost daily reading of the Bible, I never fail to find it always new and marvelously in tune with the changing needs of every day. — Cecil B. DeMille

I read about a John Shelby of Thackham, England, who in 1672 was thrown from his horse into a thicket where he found an iron pot containing more than five hundred gold coins. According to the treasure trove laws of England, all hidden or lost property belonged to the Crown. However, Shelby refused to give the gold to the king's officers, and he was arrested, tried for treason, and beheaded. This was probably a favorite story of the IRS. — Nelson DeMille

I was trained in Army Intelligence, but spent most of my army career in the infantry. But like many people of my generation, I was very much caught up in the Cold War, and books and movies about espionage. — Nelson DeMille

It's much different today than it was during the Cold War. The CIA is not the subject of many books anymore. But that might change, because of international terrorism and Red China. — Nelson DeMille

I had a very strong desire to be successful at something. — Nelson DeMille

You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real danger. — Nelson DeMille

I make my pictures for people, not for critics. — Cecil B. DeMille

I want to be the Cecil B. DeMille of science fiction. — Steven Spielberg

God gave us free agency, and then gave us the commandments to keep us free. — Cecil B. DeMille

Somehow, amid all the sophistication and diversions of this world, we forgot the basics: take care of business at home first, and never betray your blood. — Nelson DeMille

It is time to stop talking so much about what kind of leaders we want, to give less lip service to what Washington or Wall Street or Hollywood should do, and to act a lot more like citizens who actually deserve freedom. — Oliver DeMille

How many more are there like you? (Maggie)
Enough to make the cast of a Cecil B. DeMille film look like a two-man opera. (Wren) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

The liberal arts are the arts of communication and thinking. 'They are the arts indispensable to further learning, for they are the arts of reading, writing, speaking, listening, figuring, — Oliver DeMille

Most twenty-four-year-old women I know sleep in something more revealing. Something more adult." I raised my eyebrows. "There is nothing wrong with my Hello Kitty T-shirt." It was thin and comfortable, and it reached to my mid-thigh, which meant that if I had to get up in the middle of the night to dispatch any intruders, I'd do it with my butt covered and modesty intact. Sean frowned. "Sure, if you're five. Got a touch of arrested development happening there?" Argh. — Ilona Andrews

If Americans are frustrated with Congress, imagine their frustration with a group of international bank officials running our ecomomy-bankers who may not have as their motive either to see us out of debt to them or to strengthen our economy, society, international influence, or other elements of our way of life. — Oliver DeMille

For the Three Percent:
You may sometimes feel
like you were born in the wrong century,
or that the struggle for freedom is already lost,
but you weren't, and it isn't.
Your day is coming.
Now is the time to prepare. — Oliver DeMille

We tend to let our freedoms slip away because they are tucked away in documents and policies that we don't ever deal with directly. — Oliver DeMille

"Thanks," many small businesspeople are saying, "but no thanks. Forget the government credits and loan programs, and just get rid of all the bureaucratic red tape and high taxes which make it hard to build businesses, hire employees and meet our payroll." — Oliver DeMille

The shortest distance between where we are today as a nation and an effective return to increasing our freedoms and widespread prosperity is for regular American citizens to read and study the great books. — Oliver DeMille

No U.S. president can "fix" education, no law can systematize inspiration, and no amount of funding, policy or resources can structure passion. — Oliver DeMille

Did you hear that? a woman asked. I crouched behind the growth. No. No, you didn't hear anything. Don't mind me, I'm not hiding the corpse of a nasty creature behind your flower bed. Nope. Nothing here but cute, fluffy bunnies scampering adorably into the night ... — Ilona Andrews

Mr. DeMille's theory of sexual difference was that marriage is an artificial state for women. The want to be taken, ruled, raped. That was his theory. — Hedy Lamarr

When we discover this and give our lives to it, we are leaders. This is the Path of Leadership. Whatever our age or phase of life, we must enter and stay on the Path of Leadership. The future of the world depends upon it-upon you. — Oliver DeMille

He smiled at me, turning into the old Sean Evans. The transformation was so sudden, I blinked to make sure I didn't imagine it. Because you're a carebear. — Ilona Andrews

In America if you're poor, you're worse than a criminal. You're nobody. — Nelson DeMille

Education occurs when students set out to educate themselves ... the student will only learn, can only learn, what he chooses to learn ... (An) advantage of not pushing is an innate sense (his) education is (his) responsibility and reward. — Oliver DeMille

I generally unwind by having dinner with close friends. — Nelson DeMille

There is no harder worker than a former government employee who has discovered the word incentive. — Nelson DeMille

G.I. humor is similar to cop humor. — Nelson DeMille

Great education defies structure because it is always (always!) individualized, personalized, interactive, nimble, responsive and inspired. — Oliver DeMille

Prosperity and abundance in a society depend on a certain type of person: the producer. Societies with few producers stagnate and decay, while nations with a large number of producers vibrantly grow-in wealth, freedom, power, influence and the pursuit of happiness. — Oliver DeMille

The air was so thick with testosterone that the wallpaper was getting soggy. — Nelson DeMille

Job happiness is directly proportional to the distance you are from the home office. — Nelson DeMille

Most accidents, I'm convinced, are God's way of getting rid of stupid people. Or if you believe in Darwinism, you wonder why there are any stupid people left in the world. Well, I guess they can reproduce before they remove themselves from the gene pool. — Nelson DeMille

I don't like mysteries, which is why I want to solve them. It bothers me that there are things I don't know. — Nelson DeMille

I think it's more difficult now to write a spy thriller with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many authors have tried, but few have succeeded in capturing the interest of readers. — Nelson DeMille

Credo quia impossibile.' I believe it because it is impossible. — Nelson DeMille

The American dream was not supposed to look like this, and when men went off the war, too often other men came in the night to the bedroom at the back of the long, narrow trailers. In fact, I had lived there and had gone off to war, and someone took of my place in the bed and took of my young wife. But that was few wars ago, and so much has happened since , that the only lingering bitterness left is that the bastard also took my dog. — Nelson DeMille

The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you are finished. — Nelson DeMille

Books are better than television, the internet, or the computer for educating and maintaining freedom.
Books matter because they state ideas and then attempt to thoroughly prove them. They have an advantage precisely because they slow down the process, allowing the reader to internalize, respond, react and transform. The ideas in books matter because time is taken to establish truth, and because the reader must take the time to consider each idea and either accept it or, if he rejects it, to think through sound reasons for doing so. A nation of people who write and read is a nation with the attention span to earn an education and free society if they choose. — Oliver DeMille

I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting. — Nelson DeMille

Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture. — Cecil B. DeMille

A dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit. — Cecil B. DeMille

Kate had never been married, so she had no way of knowing if I was a normal husband. This has been good for our marriage. — Nelson DeMille

Our middle class majority, deeply in personal debt, elects political leaders who increase our benefits. Then we vote them out because we dislike the soaring national debt. — Oliver DeMille

The world has gotten smaller and more accessible since I first started writing in the 70's. — Nelson DeMille

Totally incompetent blowhard, an idiot and a fool. — Nelson DeMille

Well, no one ever said the truth would make you happy - only free. — Nelson DeMille

In nations that have become too complex, taxes and regulation cause at least a doubling of the amount employers must spend on labor. Many experts call this 'progress,' but the natural result is that many companies respond by sending their operations and jobs to less costly nations. — Oliver DeMille

A lot of who you were in middle age was determined before you had a chance to manipulate, control, or eve understand the things around you. It was no mystery, he thought, why some old people's minds returned to their youth; the wonder of those years, the discoveries, the first experience with the dirty secret of death, and the first stirrings of lust and love were indelible, drawn in luminous colors on clean canvas. Indeed, the first sex act was so mind-boggling that most people could still remember it clearly twenty, thirty, sixty years later. — Nelson DeMille

This guy I know went into a sex shop and asked the proprietor for a blow-up sex doll." "Is this a joke?" "So the proprietor asks, 'You want a Christian doll, a Jewish doll, or a Muslim doll?' And the guy says, 'What difference does it make?' And the proprietor says, 'Well, the Muslim dolls blow themselves up. — Nelson DeMille

There is no terra incognito left. — Nelson DeMille

Writing doesn't leave much time for hobbies, unless you consider that I began writing as a hobby and have made the hobby into a profession. — Nelson DeMille

Basically, all women are nurturers and healers, and all men are mental patients to varying degrees. — Nelson DeMille

It's being handled. Your involvement isn't necessary. You're free to continue on your serial urination spree. — Ilona Andrews

Sean Evans was officially pissed off. Serves you right, furball. — Ilona Andrews

Still reading but learning a lot about true education and the process of guiding our children in their educational pursuits. — Oliver DeMille

The journey home is never a direct route; it is, in fact, always circuitous, and somewhere along the way, we discover that the journey is more significant than the destination and that the people we meet along the way will be the traveling companions of our memories forever. — Nelson DeMille

The myth is that it is possible for one human being to educate another — Oliver DeMille

I thought again of how Tobin had already killed five good people and was about to be the cause of two more dying. I couldn't believe that this little turd had actually caused all this death and misery. The only explanation I had for it was that short people with beady eyes and big appetites were ruthless and dangerous. — Nelson DeMille

We're all pilgrims on the same journey - but some pilgrims have better road maps. — Nelson DeMille

Americans must either choose big government and be willing to pay for and submit to it, or they must move toward smaller, less intrusive government and be willing to enjoy fewer government programs. — Oliver DeMille

Ernest Hemingway was the author I drew inspiration from. — Nelson DeMille

The slaves in Rome were incapable of leisure and so their masters gave them entertainment to keep them pacified. — Oliver DeMille

Lawrence Kelter is an exciting new novelist, who reminds me of an early Robert Ludlum. — Nelson DeMille

The most powerful lessons occur where studies intersect with real life. — Oliver DeMille

As a boy, I used to look upon the hieroglyphics as so many wonderful pictures. — Cecil B. DeMille

How you handle life depends a lot on how you handle plan B, or if you have a plan B. — Nelson DeMille

What I have crossed out I didn't like. What I haven't crossed out I'm dissatisfied with. — Cecil B. DeMille

Every time I make a picture the critics' estimate of American public taste goes down ten percent. — Cecil B. DeMille

From the unknown, through the unknown, to the unknown. Put your hand into the hand of God. It will be all right. — Nelson DeMille

Sometimes shit happens even if you have a shit shield — Nelson DeMille

I've always been fascinated by the Gold Coast. The homes themselves are spectacular, unlike anything you'll see other than in Newport, Bar Harbor or Palm Beach. It's a very special area that, because of local demographics, is not going to survive much longer. — Nelson DeMille

What the great mentor is always looking for is a person who is willing to tap his genius, to put it through the refiner's fire, to do the hard work to develop it. Indeed, mentoring is the medieval art of alchemy-turning plain old human steel into hearts and minds of gold. — Oliver DeMille

We're all
criminally insane, but most of us have good control mechanisms,
internal and external. Remove the controls and you have a killer. — Nelson DeMille

I wasn't sure about that, but one never knows. Sometimes a neighborhood, like a culture or civilization, is strong enough to absorb and acculturate any number of newcomers. But I don't know if that's true around here any longer. The outward forms and appearances look the same - [ ... ]- but the substance has been altered. — Nelson DeMille

Mr. Stanley if you had stayed for your entire time in Hue at the mini-motel where they do not ask for passports or visas." "Right. We should have done that. Anything else?" "Yes. How does your lady friend, — Nelson DeMille

And there was a time, you know, not so long ago, as recently as my own childhood in fact, when everyone believed in the future and eagerly awaited it or rushed to meet it. But now nearly everyone I know or used to know is trying to slow the speed of the world as the future starts to look more and more like someplace you don't want to be. — Nelson DeMille

I worked with Cecil B DeMille quite a few times. — Richard Farnsworth

Small business people have gotten us out of nearly all modern recessions - not by waiting for others to fix things or turning to government, but rather by applying leadership, inventiveness, creativity and originality. — Oliver DeMille

But, you know, shit happens even when you have a shit shield with you. — Nelson DeMille

The founding American generations did something that almost no others have ever done. They read the fine print! They taught their children to read bills, laws, court cases, legislative debates, executive decrees, and bureaucratic policies. They read them in schoolrooms and at home ... They said they would consider their children uneducated if they didn't read such things. — Oliver DeMille

The most common cause of death among alpha males was ego. — Nelson DeMille

And there was that pregnant silence in the air, the silence between a husband and wife who have just had words, and it is unlike any other silence except perhaps the awful stillness you hear between the flash of an atomic bomb and the blast. Five, four, three, two, one. — Nelson DeMille

If everyone howled at every injustice, every act of barbarism, every act of unkindness, then we would be taking the first step towards a real humanity. — Nelson DeMille

Our children must be offered an education up to par with thier potential-and equal to the needs of the Twenty-first century. — Oliver DeMille

Mrs. Corey still uses her maiden name for business, or when she wants to pretend she doesn't know me. — Nelson DeMille

The window on the right featured contemporary bestselling authors like Brad Meltzer, James Patterson, David Baldacci, Nelson DeMille, and others who make more money writing about what I do than I make doing what I do. — Nelson DeMille

Of course, DeMille never did anything on a small scale. — Clint Walker

Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face. — Nelson DeMille

Obnoxious smart-ass. Never been anywhere, never done anything, huh. Arrested development, huh. Considering that it was coming from a man who spent his nights peeing on his neighbors' fences, that was rich. Shoot, I should've told him that. — Ilona Andrews

(Alfred's sister, Olive Deering, was famous in those years for her sentiments during her filming of the endless DeMille epic The Ten Commandments: "Who do I have to fuck to get off this picture?") — Lee Grant

Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. And if your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough. — Nelson DeMille

How you doing at 26 Fed?"
"I'm growing and learning, meeting new challenges with confidence and enthusiasm while developing good work ethics and people skills."
"I'm surprised they haven't fired your ass."
"Me too. — Nelson DeMille

Intrapreneurs work and lead with the Producer mindset. They run their department, team, or company with an abundance mentality, an attachment to true principles, and a fearless and informed faith in people and quality. — Oliver DeMille

She asked me, "Was your divorce nasty?" "Not at all. The marriage was nasty. — Nelson DeMille