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If there is any human tragedy, there is only one, and it occurs when we forget who we are and remain silent while a stranger takes up residence inside our skin.

James Lee Burke

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James Lee Burke
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: December 5
Author
Novelist
Writer
Houston
Texas
Tragedy
Remain
Silent
Inside
Residence
Takes
Occurs
Forget
Skin
Human
Stranger
Humans
Skins

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We gain no wisdom by imposing our way on others.
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We all end up in the same place. Some sonner than others.
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But perhaps age has taught me that the earth is still new, molten at the core and still forming, that black leaves in the winter forest will crawl with life in the spring, that our story is ongoing and it is indeed a crime to allow the heart's energies to dissipate with the fading of light on the horizon.
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To misuse one's talent, to be cavalier about it, to set it aside because of fear or sloth is unpardonable.
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Age is a peculiar kind of thief. It slips up on you and steps inside your skin and is so quiet and methodical in its work that you never realize it has stolen your youth until you look into the mirror one morning and see a man you don't recognize.
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There is no higher form of artistic expression then film
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Neither our own passing nor the passing of an era is a tragedy, no matter how much we would like to think it is.
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I think the crime novel has replaced the sociological novel of the 1930s. I think the progenitor of that tradition is James M. Cain, who in my view is the most neglected writer in American literature.
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One day you'll have a quiet heart.
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I could only wonder again at the white race's naïveté in always sending forth our worst members as our emissaries.
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Hackberry Holland's greatest fear was his fellow man's propensity to act collectively, in militaristic lockstep, under the banner of God and country. Mobs did not rush across town to do good deeds, and in Hackberry's view, there was no more odious taint on any social or political endeavor than universal approval.
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Success, like fashion, is a fickle companion and can leave one in the wink of an eye.
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What's the worst thing about getting old? Getting old.
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And every good artist knows that the gift comes from somewhere else, and it's there for a reason, and that's to make the world a better place.
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You have two choices in life. You either die or do something with your time. You're going to be doing something - why not write?
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The real gladiators of the world are so humble in their origins and unremarkable in appearance that when we stand next to them in a grocery-store line, we never guess how brightly their souls can burn in the dark.
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Louisiana is a fresh-air mental asylum.
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Is there a design in the events of our lives? Or do things just happen, much like a junk yard falling down a staircase? If it's the latter, how do you deal with it?
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Write for the love of your art. Someplace down the road, the money, the fame, they'll come, but by that time you won't be thinking in terms of money or fame.
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There's nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.
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