Top 125 Quotes & Sayings by James A. Michener

The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.

I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.

If there was a turning point for me, it was 'The Bridges at Toko-Ri.' It is a very fine short novel. But it gave me very little satisfaction. Really. I decided I wasn't going to go down that avenue.

Whatever I did, there was always someone around who was better qualified. They just didn't bother to do it.

There are no insoluble problems. Only time-consuming ones.

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.

America is a nation with many flaws that only the stupid would deny, but with hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them.

It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.

I'm just a guy up on a hill writing.

An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.

I have only one bit of advice to the beginning writer: Be sure your novel is read by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.

Russia, France, Germany and China. They revere their writers. America is still a frontier country that almost shudders at the idea of creative expression.

I was a Navy officer writing about Navy problems and I simply stole this lovely Army nurse and popped her into a Navy uniform, where she has done very well for herself.

I am the product of the American education system. It is a system that has always been on the lookout for bright boys and girls. It spotted me when I was 14, and I owe a tremendous debt to my alma mater.

For this is the journey that men and women make, to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn't matter much else what they find.

A person on dialysis undergoes very heavy and irritating treatment, and in time, it seems more than you can bear.

My work as a naval officer in World War II enabled me to serve on 49 different South Pacific islands so that I came to know the area about as well as anyone.

I can't remember how old I was, maybe 13, 14, and to see these fellows and hear their stories and to see life come to such a drab ending - my God, a poorhouse in those days was something. You would have to be inert not to respond to it.

Hawaii and Fiji are two of the best island groups in the world to visit as a vacationer. The great hotels, the fascinating local people, the exciting history of the two contrasting island groups, and the unmatched scenery make these two of the most enticing stopovers.

Very early on in life, I decided the hell with it: material things weren't for me. Christmas would come, and other kids would have all these presents, and it wouldn't bother me a bit.

The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.

If you type adeptly with 10 fingers, you're typing faster than your mind is working.

Honest to God, I do all the research on these books myself.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Whenever I start a book, I swear it's going to be a short one. But then it's, 'Who was his grandfather? And how did he get there in the first place? And what kind of animals is he chasing?'

The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.

I missed a whole cycle of childhood, but I've never used it as a device for self-pity.

I know the world of opera so intimately: historical sweep, sharply defined characters, not too rational an explanation of what's going on. It's a feast.

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.

If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.

I attended seminars where many social issues were discussed abstractly, outside the pressures of an immediate situation, and there I developed certain attitudes which permitted me to face the real thing when it came along.

They were a group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men.

If I were a young man today, I might be lured into the moviemaking industry. You can really make a statement there.

When I first pitched my Navy tent on the island of Espiritu Santo to the north of Vila, the natives on nearby Malakula were cannibals. Today, they have representation in the United Nations.

The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation.

You have to be eligible for luck to strike, and I think that's a matter of education and preparation, and character and all the other solid attributes that sometimes people laugh at.

Every animal that walks the earth, or swims, or flies is precious beyond description, something so rare and wonderful that it equals the stars or the ocean or the mind of man.

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.

...when men ignite in their hearts a religious fury, they inflict at the same time a blindness on their eyes.

The dead are dead but they rely on us to fulfill their hopes.

I am terrified of restrictive religious doctrine, having learned from history that when men who adhere to any form of it are in control, common men like me are in peril.

No man leaves where he is and seeks a distant place unless he is in some respect a failure.

A nation becomes what its young people read in their youth. Its ideals are fashioned then, its goals strongly determined.

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

No invader has ever conquered the heart of Poland, that spirit which is the inheritance of sons and daughters, the private passion of families and the ancient, unbreakable tie to all those who came before.

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both.

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 one of the world's great rewriters.

All I can do is play the game the way the cards fall.

America is a nation with many flaws, but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them.

I was once asked if I'd like to meet the president of a certain country. I said, "No, but I'd love to meet some sheepherders." The sheepherders, farmers and taxi drivers are often the most interesting people.

I was born to a woman I never knew and raised by another who took in orphans. I do not know my background, my lineage, my biological or cultural heritage. But when I meet someone new, I treat them with respect.... For after all, they could be my people.

We are never prepared for what we expect.

A poet sees things in two ways: First, as a child who never saw it before, and Second, as a dying man who will never see it again.

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 organize experience, to tell tales that dramatize the adventures which readers might have had. I have been that ancient man who sat by the campfire at night and regaled the hunters with imaginative recitations about their prowess. The job of an apple tree is to bear apples. The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation.

Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today because if you enjoy it today, you can do it again tomorrow.

I've spent my life trying to be better than I was, and I am a brother to all who share the same aspiration.

The sense of belonging is one of the great gifts men get in battle.