Top 71 Quotes & Sayings by James Lee Burke - Page 2

Don't let anyone tell you that age purchases your freedom from fear of death.

..why is it that in problematic situations almost everyone resorts to axioms and societal remedies that in actuality almost nobody believes in?...ask yourself, have you ever known anyone whose marriage was saved by a marriage counselor, whose drinking was cured by a psychiatrist, whose son was kept out of reform school by a social worker?

I think the "crime novel" has replaced the sociological novel of the 1930s. I think the progenitor of that tradition is James M. Cain, who in my view is the most neglected writer in American literature.

We all end up in the same place. Some sonner than others.

Success, like fashion, is a fickle companion and can leave one in the wink of an eye.

You have two choices in life. You either die or do something with your time. You're going to be doing something - why not write?

Write for the love of your art. Someplace down the road, the money, the fame, they'll come, but by that time you won't be thinking in terms of money or fame.

Neither our own passing nor the passing of an era is a tragedy, no matter how much we would like to think it is.

Why do I always feel like you're trying to staple my umbilical cord to the corner of your desk?

I looked at Lucas with the pang that a parent feels when he knows his child will be hurt and that it's no one's fault and that to try to preempt the rites of passage is an act of contempt for the child's courage.

The best thing about being a best-selling writer is being a best-selling writer. More seriously, today I can write full time and pay the bills.