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The largest website for English phrases and quotes

Category: James A. Michener

James A. Michener

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

Light, People, Dark

James A. Michener

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.

Life, Me, Material Things

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.

Life, Reality, Defeat

James A. Michener

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

James A. Michener

Writers turn dreams into print.

James A. Michener

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

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.

book, difference, goal, print, self, selfish, work, write, writer, writers, writing

James A. Michener

The South Pacific is memorable because when you are in the islands you simply cannot ignore nature. You cannot avoid looking up at the stars, large as apples on a new tree. You cannot deafen your ear to the thunder of the surf. The bright sands, the screaming birds, and the wild winds are always with you.

James A. Michener

At times, working in big cities far from nature, I have been sick with nesomania, and I think the reason is this: On the islands one has both the time and the inclination to communicate with the stars and the trees and the waves drifting ashore, one lives more intensely.

travel, writing

James A. Michener

The South Pacific is not a paradise, in the sense that Eden wasn’t either. There are always apples and snakes. But it is a wonderful place to live. The green vales of Tahiti, the hills of Guadalcanal, the towering peaks about Wau, and the noonday brilliance of Rabaul have enchanted many white travelers who have stayed on for many years and built happy lives. Often on a cool night when the beer was plentiful and the stories alluring, we have envied the men and women of the South Pacific

geography, travel

James A. Michener

What did I learn in my travels? In whatever foreign country I visited I met dreamers who longed to reach America and its promise of an enriched life so I knew we had a country rich in opportunity, but I also met those brilliant Jews already in America who had been denied that promise.

america, travel

James A. Michener

With my pen I have engraved warrants of citizenship in the most remote corners, for truly the world has been my home.

travel, writing