Michener Book Quotes & Sayings

Good art in general aspires to something, as a good painting aspires to something, almost spiritual or holy. — Gerhard Richter

This treaty [Kyoto] is, in our opinion, based upon flawed ideas. Research data on climate change do not show that human use of hydrocarbons is harmful. To the contrary, there is good evidence that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is environmentally helpful ... agreement would have very negative effects upon the technology of nations throughout the world, especially those that are currently attempting to lift from poverty and provide opportunities to the over 4 billion people in technologically underdeveloped countries. — Frederick Seitz

Age, with his eyes in the back of his head, thinks it wisdom to see the bogs through which he has floundered. — Ambrose Bierce

Over on the Democratic side, Martin O'Malley recently spoke about the need for Wall Street reform and said that he isn't running for president to be quote, 'wined and dined' by executives. Then Chris Christie said, 'And I am also not running to be wined.' — Jimmy Fallon

Indifference is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don't stand a chance against it. — Joan D. Vinge

If I have no appetite - it is because I am already full. If I have no desire to go anywhere - it is because I have already arrived. — Max Strom

There's no point in making a movie just to be making a movie. — Warren Beatty

Every man needs a blind eye and a deaf ear, so when people applaud, you'll only hear half of it, and when people salute, you'll only see part of it. Believe only half the praise and half the criticism. — Charles Spurgeon

You don't fight to protect warships or old men. Like the book says, you fight to save your civilization. And so often it seems that civilization is composed mainly of the things women and children want. — James A. Michener

Cease speaking of enemies when an achievement can kindle a great light. Solitude will transmit the message better than the murmurs of crowds. — Nicholas Roerich

Contrary to what people think, I slave over my books. — James A. Michener

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 want to be writers. They want to have been writers. They wish they had a book in print. They don't want to go through the work of getting the damn book out. There is a huge difference. — James A. Michener

Many people who want to be writers don't really want to be writers. They want to have been writers. They wish they had a book in print. — James A. Michener

As an actor, you want to do the best job possible, and you want the best scripts possible because it makes life more interesting. — Mark Strickson

A novel ... is a golden kettle into which you pour all of experience ... You can toss in great chunks of meat and fragrant bones and stock left over from the meals before. You can add fragments of character or the whole man. You can have scenes that fill a quarter of the book and others that flash by in a fleeting glance. In a novel there's nothing you can't do, if you do it with passion. — James A. Michener

Not too many people work in a job where, waiting out there are three or four hundred people who are paid to tear apart what you've done. And often they are brighter than you are, or they know more about the subject than you do, or they wish they had written a book themselves, or done a lot better. Or they just don't like it! And you have to live with it. — James A. Michener

No one wants a masterpiece knocking around when your own book is looking for attention. — Tibor Fischer

I'll play it and tell you what it is later. — Miles Davis

If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it. — James A. Michener

Only another writer, someone who had worked his heart out on a good book which sold three thousand copies, could appreciate the thrill that overcame me one April morning in 1973 when Dean Rivers of our small college in Georgia appeared at my classroom door — James A. Michener

I would suppose I learned how to write when I was very young indeed. When I read a child's book about the Trojan War and decided that the Greeks were really a bunch of frauds with their tricky horses and the terrible things they did, stealing one another's wives, and so on, so at that very early age, I re-wrote the ending of the Iliad so that the Trojans won. And boy, Achilles and Ajax got what they wanted, believe me. And thereafter, at frequent intervals, I would write something. It was really quite extraordinary. Never of very high merit, but the daringness of it was. — James A. Michener

I do believe that everyone growing up faces differential opportunities. With me, it was books and travel and some good teachers. — James A. Michener