“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)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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James A. Michener 55

American author 1907–1997

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“America is so big that it cries for work. In Germany, if you tried to find work, you couldn't. In America, it was a strange economy which caused unemployment. German unemployment was due to the boycott of German goods. Not an official boycott. The world market refused to accept German goods. France, England, and America refused. Germany had no colonies and she had to export manufactured goods for grain. We had nothing to speak of. We managed to live during the war by rations. We all lived on a strict ration - even ministers in the government like myself - and we lived on things from the conquered countries, including Africa and Russia.”

Fritz Sauckel (1894–1946) German general

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“Thinking of Melville, thinking of Poe, thinking of Mark Twain and Vachel Lindsay, thinking of Jack London and Tom Wolfe, one begins to feel there is almost no way of becoming a creative writer in America without being a loser.”

Nelson Algren (1909–1981) American novelist, short story writer

"Algren at the height of his success" in 1950, quoted by Richard Flanagan, 2005.
Nonfiction works

“It appears that we are to reconcile ourselves to the fact that we are to have 1,300,000 unemployed in this country. There are no unemployed in the United States of America, no unemployed at all in France. There are hardly any unemployed in Italy. The United States of America, France, and Italy are protectionist countries. We are a free-trade import country.”

F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872–1930) British politician

Speech to the Constitutional Club (20 November 1923), quoted in The Times (21 November 1923), p. 17

“This is now the twelfth day of rioting in France. They have been rioting for almost two weeks. And France has still not surrendered. That's like a record.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

The Tonight Show, November 7, 2005, as reported on miquelon.org
French Bashing and Francophobia

“Your Majesty may entertain the idea of partitioning China, but let it not be forgotten that… it is still full of inexhaustible vitality. China has not completely lost its martial spirit, as may now be seen in the 'Boxer Movement'. Neither Japan nor any country in Europe or America is intellectually or militarily equipped to rule one quarter of mankind. Therefore it is actually an ill-advised policy to try dismemberment.”

Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal

Waldersee to Kaiser Wilhelm II c. 1901, warning him againsgt partitioning China. https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/china/patriotism.pdf

“The Slavs have now become unrestful and will want to attack Austria. Germany is bound to stand by her ally - Russia and France will join in and then England…I am a man of peace - but now I have to arm my Country so that whoever falls on me I can crush - and crush them I will.”

Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859–1941) German Emperor and King of Prussia

Conversation with Lord Stamfordham (25 May 1913), quoted in John Rohl, 'Germany', in Keith Wilson (ed.), Decisions for War 1914 (London: University College London Press, 1995), pp. 43-44
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“You can see China still cannot offer any real value to the world except as cheap labor, manufacturer, and its own so-called stability. Besides that, I don’t see any creative values and creative mind or thinking [that] can be announced from China. So this is the struggle China has to face in the next decades.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2010-, I have to speak for people who are afraid, 2010

“Some country is going to be the clean energy superpower of the 21st century and create millions of jobs and businesses. It’s probably going to be either China, Germany, or America. I want it to be us! We invent the technology, we should make it and use it and export it, which will help to grow our economy.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), Speech in Warren, Michigan (August 11, 2016)

“Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation's troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen.”

Ayn Rand book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966)

“I know I must live in France, but I don't want to cut myself off from America. France is a picture already painted. America still has to be painted. Maybe that's why I feel freer there. But when I work in America, it's like shouting in a forest. There's no echo.”

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) French artist and painter

as quoted by Joseph A. Harriss, in 'The Elusive Marc Chagall', - the 'Smithsonian Magazine', December 2003 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-elusive-marc-chagall-95114921/
after 1930

“Russia, France, Germany and China. They revere their writers. America is still a frontier country that almost shudders at the idea of creative expression.”

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James A. Michener 55

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