Quote

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?

James Lee Burke

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

James Lee Burke
Age: 87
Born: 1936
Born: December 5
Author
Novelist
Writer
Houston
Texas
Much
Deal
Things
Design
Staircase
Like
Events
Staircases
Deals
Yard
Happen
Junk
Lives
Yards
Fall
Latter
Happens
Falling

More quotes by James Lee Burke

Image
Using a first-person narrator is simply a matter of hearing the voice inside yourself.
James Lee Burke
Image
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.
James Lee Burke
Image
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.
James Lee Burke
Image
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.
James Lee Burke
Image
What's the worst thing about getting old? Getting old.
James Lee Burke
Image
The only thing an artist has to remember is to never lose faith in his vision.
James Lee Burke
Image
That's one of the great advantages of age. You can say, I don't want to, I don't care, you can throw temper tantrums, and nobody minds.
James Lee Burke
Image
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.
James Lee Burke
Image
I feel blessed in the knowledge that I probably belong to the last generation that will remember what we call traditional America.
James Lee Burke
Image
It has been my experience that most human stories are circular rather than linear. Regardless of the path we choose, we somehow end up where we commenced - in part, I suspect, because the child who lives in us goes along for the ride.
James Lee Burke
Image
Louisiana is a fresh-air mental asylum.
James Lee Burke
Image
...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.
James Lee Burke
Image
To misuse one's talent, to be cavalier about it, to set it aside because of fear or sloth is unpardonable.
James Lee Burke
Image
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.
James Lee Burke
Image
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
Image
Every rejection is incremental payment on your dues that in some way will be translated back into your work.
James Lee Burke
Image
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.
James Lee Burke
Image
God bless the Reference Librarians
James Lee Burke
Image
One day you'll have a quiet heart.
James Lee Burke
Image
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.
James Lee Burke