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You don't fight to protect warships or old men. Like the book says, you fight to save your civilization. And so often it seems that civilization is composed mainly of the things women and children want.

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
Seems
Mainly
Women
Save
Book
Civilization
Children
Protect
Things
Fight
Men
Says
Like
Fighting
Warships
Often
Composed

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Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
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The sense of belonging is one of the great gifts men get in battle.
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The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.
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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.
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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.
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If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
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You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.
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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.
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In six pages, I can't even say Hello.
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Writers turn dreams into print.
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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.
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I think young people ought to seek that differential experience that is going to knock them off dead center. I was a typical American school boy. I happened to get straight A's and be pretty good in sports. But I had no great vision of what I could be. And I never had any yearning.
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The dead are dead but they rely on us to fulfill their hopes.
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I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.
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a soldier lives always for the next battle, because he knows that before it arrives impossible changes can occur in his favor.
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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.
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It is difficult to be king when the gods are changing.
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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.
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I had been educated with free scholarships. I went to nine different universities, always at public expense, and when you have that experience, you are almost obligated to give it back. It's as simple as that.
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I was once asked if I'd like to meet the president of a certain country. I said, No, but I'd love to meet some sheepherders. The sheepherders, farmers and taxi drivers are often the most interesting people.
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