List of James A. Michener Quotes

Never Forget, Son, When You Represent Texas, Always Go First Class.

If A Young Aspirant Had A Modicum Of Skill And A Busy Typewriter She Or He Would Sooner Or Later Get A Foothold In One Of The Magazines And A Leaping Start On The Ladder Upward.

Millions Upon Millions Of Years Ago, When The Continents Were Already Formed And The Principal Features Of The Earth Had Been Decided, There Existed, Then As Now, One Aspect Of The World That Dwarfed All Other ... A Mighty Ocean, Resting Uneasily To The East Of The Largest Continent, A Restless Ever-changing, Gigantic Body Of Water That Would Later Be Described As Pacific.

The Most Sheer Fun I Ever Had In Sports Was Playing Volleyball, A Game I Commend Highly. I Understand That An Effort Is Under Way To Establish A National League Of Professional Volleyball Teams, And If You Have Ever Seen The Great Women's Teams Of Japan And Russia Or The Equally Good Men's Teams Of Cuba And East Germany, You Know How Exciting This Playground Game, Which Requires So Little Equipment, Can Be.

In A Small Polish Farm Community, During The Fall Planting Season Of 1981, Events Occurred Which Electrified The World, Sending Reverberations Of Magnitude To Capitals As Diverse As Washington, Peking And Especially Moscow.

On 24 October 1944 Planet Earth Was Following Its Orbit About The Sun As It Has Obediently Done For Nearly Five Billion Years.

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.

I Don’t Know Who My Parents Were. I Know Nothing About My Inheritance. I Could Be Jewish; I Could Be Part Negro; I Could Be Irish; I Could Be Russian. I Am Spiritually A Mix Anyway, But I Did Have A Solid Childhood Fortunately, Because Of Some Wonderful Women Who Brought Me Up. I Never Had A Father Or A Man In The House, And That Was A Loss...

I Do Believe That Everyone Growing Up Faces Differential Opportunities. With Me, It Was Books And Travel And Some Good Teachers.

The Arrogance Of The Artist Is A Very Profound Thing, And It Fortifies You.

The Rules Seem To Be These: If You Have Written A Successful Novel, Everyone Invites You To Write Short Stories. If You Have Written Some Good Short Stories, Everyone Wants You To Write A Novel. But Nobody Wants Anything Until You Have Already Proved Yourself By Being Published Somewhere Else.

A Group Of Two Dozen Nurses Completely Surrounded By 100,000 Unattached American Men.