Quote

When this is over, I'm not going to be the same guy. I am going to live as if I were a great man.

James A. Michener

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

James A. Michener
Age: 90 †
Born: 1907
Born: February 3
Died: 1997
Died: October 16
Author
Autobiographer
Military Officer
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
New York City
New York
James Albert Michener
James Michener
Great
Going
Men
Guy
Live

More quotes by James A. Michener

Image
[The church's] job is to provide permanent solace and spiritual leadership to the people as a whole, whatever their government at the moment, so long as it stays within the bounds of moral decency.
James A. Michener
Image
I think the bottom line is that if you get through a childhood like mine, it's not at all bad. Obviously, you come out a pretty tough turkey, and you have had all the inoculations you need to keep you on a level keel for the rest of your life. The sad part is, most of us don't come out.
James A. Michener
Image
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.
James A. Michener
Image
The extreme geniality of San Francisco's economic, intellectual and political climate makes it the most varied and challenging city in the United States.
James A. Michener
Image
If I were a young man, I would not hesitate at writing anything to get into print, except pornography.
James A. Michener
Image
About a billion years ago, long before the continents had separated to define the ancient oceans, or their own outlines had been determined, a small protuberance jutted out from the northwest corner of what would later become North America.
James A. Michener
Image
I am always interested in why young people become writers, and from talking with many I have concluded that most do not want to be writers working eight and ten hours a day and accomplishing little they want to have been writers, garnering the rewards of having completed a best-seller. They aspire to the rewards of writing but not to the travail.
James A. Michener
Image
The decent thing to do is to get rid of some of this money.
James A. Michener
Image
The dead are dead but they rely on us to fulfill their hopes.
James A. Michener
Image
A writer can make a fortune in America, but he can't make a living.
James A. Michener
Image
a soldier lives always for the next battle, because he knows that before it arrives impossible changes can occur in his favor.
James A. Michener
Image
Every animal that walks the earth, or swims, or flies is precious beyond description, something so rare and wonderful that it equals the stars or the ocean or the mind of man.
James A. Michener
Image
It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.
James A. Michener
Image
For this is the journey that men and women make, to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn't matter much else what they find.
James A. Michener
Image
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
Image
You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.
James A. Michener
Image
The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation.
James A. Michener
Image
In six pages, I can't even say Hello.
James A. Michener
Image
Animals form an inalienable fragment of nature, and if we hasten the disappearance of even one species, we diminish our world and our place in it.
James A. Michener
Image
I wondered how a man ever got an English girl into bed. What did they do with her hockey stick?
James A. Michener