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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
Inside
Residence
Takes
Occurs
Forget
Skin
Human
Stranger
Humans
Skins
Tragedy
Remain
Silent

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Don't let anyone tell you that age purchases your freedom from fear of death.
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The only thing an artist has to remember is to never lose faith in his vision.
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Using a first-person narrator is simply a matter of hearing the voice inside yourself.
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We gain no wisdom by imposing our way on others.
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You do it a day at a time. You write as well as you can, you put it in the mail, you leave it under submission, you never leave it at home.
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Every rejection is incremental payment on your dues that in some way will be translated back into your work.
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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 believe the causes that create them [serial killers] are theological in nature, rather than societal. I believe they make a conscious choice to erase God's thumbprint from their souls.
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I feel blessed in the knowledge that I probably belong to the last generation that will remember what we call traditional America.
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And like most middle-aged people who hear the clock ticking in their lives, I had come to resent a waste or theft of my time that was greater than any theft of my goods or money.
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We decry violence all the time in this country, but look at our history. We were born in a violent revolution, and we've been in wars ever since. We're not a pacific people.
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There's nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.
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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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...and I wonder if there is any way to adequately describe the folly that causes us to undo all the great gifts of both Earth and Heaven.
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God bless the Reference Librarians
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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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I used to save all my rejection slips because I told myself, one day I'm going to autograph these and auction them. And then I lost the box.
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Age is a clever thief. It takes a little from you each day, so you're not aware of your loss until it'd irreversible.
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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 ALLURE OF Montana is like a commitment to a narcotic you can never use it up or get enough of it. Its wilderness areas probably resemble the earth on the first day of creation.
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