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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

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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
Young
Ten
Travail
Littles
Eight
Seller
Best
Writers
Accomplishing
Little
Interested
Concluded
Many
Working
Sellers
Writing
Hours
Completed
Always
Talking
Aspire
People
Become
Rewards

More quotes by James A. Michener

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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.
James A. Michener
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An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.
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Writers turn dreams into print.
James A. Michener
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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
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If I were a young man, I would not hesitate at writing anything to get into print, except pornography.
James A. Michener
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Although most of us know Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Paul Gauguin in Tahiti as if they were neighbors -- somewhat disreputable but endlessly fascinating -- none of us can name two French generals or department store owners of that period. I take enormous pride in considering myself an artist, one of the necessaries.
James A. Michener
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The dead are dead but they rely on us to fulfill their hopes.
James A. Michener
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It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.
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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
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If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it.
James A. Michener
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Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
James A. Michener
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In six pages, I can't even say Hello.
James A. Michener
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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
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The sense of belonging is one of the great gifts men get in battle.
James A. Michener
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America is a nation with many flaws, but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them.
James A. Michener
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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
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You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.
James A. Michener
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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
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Religious hatreds ought not to be propagated at all, but certainly not on a tax-exempt basis.
James A. Michener
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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