James A. Michener

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

“It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.”

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home.”

“We seek God so earnestly, Eliav reflected, not to find Him but to discover ourselves.”

“Public libraries have been a mainstay of my life. They represent an individual's right to acquire knowledge; they are the sinews that bind civilized societies the world over. Without librari...”

“Over a hundred German scientists arrived here [Huntsville] at eleven o’clock on an April morning and by nightfall more than sixty had applied for cards at the free library.”

“They were a group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men.”

“I am the product of the American education system. It is a system that has always been on the lookout for bright boys and girls. It spotted me when I was 14, and I owe a tremendous debt to m...”

“When I first pitched my Navy tent on the island of Espiritu Santo to the north of Vila, the natives on nearby Malakula were cannibals. Today, they have representation in the United Nations.”

“I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.”

“Hawaii and Fiji are two of the best island groups in the world to visit as a vacationer. The great hotels, the fascinating local people, the exciting history of the two contrasting island gr...”

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

“I attended seminars where many social issues were discussed abstractly, outside the pressures of an immediate situation, and there I developed certain attitudes which permitted me to face th...”

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

“I know the world of opera so intimately: historical sweep, sharply defined characters, not too rational an explanation of what's going on. It's a feast.”

“I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.”

“I have only one bit of advice to the beginning writer: Be sure your novel is read by Rodgers and Hammerstein.”

“I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.”

“If I were a young man today, I might be lured into the moviemaking industry. You can really make a statement there.”

“If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.”