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Quotes by James A. Michener


Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
– James A. Michener
An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.
– James A. Michener
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.
– James A. Michener
I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.
– James A. Michener
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.
– James A. Michener
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.
– James A. Michener
I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.
– James A. Michener
I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.
– James A. Michener
If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
– James A. Michener
If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.
– James A. Michener
Russia, France, Germany and China. They revere their writers. America is still a frontier country that almost shudders at the idea of creative expression.
– James A. Michener
Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.
– James A. Michener
The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.
– 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.
– James A. Michener
The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.
– James A. Michener
There are no insoluble problems. Only time-consuming ones.
– James A. Michener
They were a group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men.
– James A. Michener
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.
– James A. Michener
It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.
– James A. Michener