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So much of 'normal, civilized' life is bull that you can't imagine... What frightens you, doesn't frighten me, what frightens me, you'd laugh at.

James Clavell

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James Clavell
Age: 72 †
Born: 1921
Born: October 10
Died: 1994
Died: September 6
Film Director
Film Producer
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
Sydney
NSW
Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell
Charles Edmund Dumaresq du Clavelle
Fear
Bull
Doesn
Bulls
Much
Civilized
Life
Laughter
Laugh
Normal
Laughing
Frightens
Imagine
Frighten

More quotes by James Clavell

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Changi became my university instead of my prison. Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life - the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving.
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The more I know, the more sure I am I know so little. The eternal paradox.
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God gives us intelligence to uncover the wonders of nature. Without the gift, nothing is possible.
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Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars.
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.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.
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Isn't it only laughter we can stay human?
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Of what real value is a title? The power is the only important thing
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I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one... In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money... the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.
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Isn't man but a blossom taken by wind, and only the mountains and the sea and the stars and this land of the gods everlasting?
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You never know . . . that's what makes life interesting.
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There is no dignity for either the sufferer or the torturer
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Anger is one of the most intimate of emotions and to expose it to strangers is one of the most stupid and sickening things to do. Never get angry with strangers because they are strangers.
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What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?
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You've commited murder just as much as Helene did. You killed a fly with a human head. She killed a human with a fly head.
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Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life - Shogun.
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What you do with strangers is ignore them for. No second chance, no sorry I did it, never accept an apology, but never, ever get angry with strangers.
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The scarcity of years does not necessitate lack of wisdom.
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How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable -- all at the same time?
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How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.
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It's always important to take time to study men -- important men. Friends and enemies.
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