James A. Michener: Trending quotes

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James A. Michener: 110 quotes7 likes

“I decided (after listening to a "talk radio" commentator who abused, vilified, and scorned every noble cause to which I had devoted my entire life) that I was both a humanist and a liberal, each of the most dangerous and vilified type. I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create a reasonably decent society. 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. I do not believe that pure reason can solve the perpetual problems unless it is modified by poetry and art and social vision. So I am a humanist. And if you want to charge me with being the most virulent kind—a secular humanist—I accept the accusation.”

James A. Michener

Interview, Parade magazine (24 November 1991)

“Second, after a painful gap without any king, and a furious struggle by various foreign powers to elect men favorable to them, the Seym chose a pathetic Polish incompetent, who had the good sense to die rather promptly.”

James A. Michener book Poland

page 153
Poland (1983)

“On Tuesday the freighter steamed through the Straits of Gibraltar and for five days plowed eastward through the Mediterranean, past islands and peninsulas rich in history, so that on Saturday night the steward advised Dr. Cullinane, "If you wish an early sight of the Holy Land you must be up at dawn."”

James A. Michener book The Source

The Source (1965) First lines

“It was the silent time before dawn, along the shores of what had been one of the most beautiful lakes in southern Africa.”

James A. Michener book The Covenant

The Covenant (1980) First lines

“On 24 October 1944 Planet Earth was following its orbit about the sun as it has obediently done for nearly five billion years.”

James A. Michener book Space

First lines
Space (1982)

“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.”

James A. Michener book Poland

Poland (1983)

“Look, son, if you calculate on getting me drunk and outsmarting me, quit now, because you simply can't do it.”

James A. Michener book Hawaii

Hawaii (1959)

“Not too many people work in a job where, waiting out there are three or four hundred people who are paid to tear apart what you've done. And often they are brighter than you are, or they know more about the subject than you do, or they wish they had written a book themselves, or done a lot better. Or they just don't like it! And you have to live with it. I have been very well treated by the critics in the long haul.”

James A. Michener

Academy of Achievement interview (1991)

“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 others… 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.”

James A. Michener book Hawaii

Hawaii (1959)

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

James A. Michener

As quoted in "The Michener Phenomenon" by Caryn James in The New York Times (8 September 1985)

“Silence, much more powerful than before, much more shot through with the meaning of life and the accumulated wisdom of history.”

James A. Michener book Poland

page 361
Poland (1983)

“He had obtained a clearer view of his homeland by leaving it and seeing it through the eyes of others.”

James A. Michener book Poland

page 571
Poland (1983)

“…organizations like the church or General Motors promote a man up and up until he reaches a spot which he is obviously incapable of filling, and there they lay him to rest.”

James A. Michener book Poland

page 587
Poland (1983)

“On a bleak wintry morning some years ago I was summoned to the office of our naval attache at the American embassy in Kabul.”

James A. Michener Caravans

Caravans (1963) First lines

“Things are going to go wrong, and I think we are false to life if we don't portray it. But there is also the hope that some lucky clown is going to come along and stumble into the gold mine. And I think you are also entitled to hold out that hope.”

James A. Michener

Academy of Achievement interview (1991)

“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

"A Spelunker in the Caves of History" in Modern Maturity (August 1985)

“A Pole is a man born with a sword in his right hand, a brick in his left. When the battle is over, he starts to rebuild.”

James A. Michener book Poland

Poland (1983)

“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.”

James A. Michener book Poland

First lines
Poland (1983)

“I feel myself the inheritor of a great background of people. Just who, precisely, they were, I have never known. I might be part Negro, might be part Jew, part Muslim, part Irish. So I can't afford to be supercilious about any group of people because I may be that people.”

James A. Michener

CNN obituary (17 October 1997) http://www.cnn.com/US/9710/16/michener.obit/