Quote

Neither our own passing nor the passing of an era is a tragedy, no matter how much we would like to think it is.

James Lee Burke

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

James Lee Burke
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: December 5
Author
Novelist
Writer
Houston
Texas
Think
Eras
Thinking
Passings
Like
Passing
Tragedy
Neither
Matter
Much
Would

More quotes by 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
..why is it that in problematic situations almost everyone resorts to axioms and societal remedies that in actuality almost nobody believes in?...ask yourself, have you ever known anyone whose marriage was saved by a marriage counselor, whose drinking was cured by a psychiatrist, whose son was kept out of reform school by a social worker?
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
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
What's the worst thing about getting old? Getting old.
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
There is no higher form of artistic expression then film
James Lee Burke
Image
Success, like fashion, is a fickle companion and can leave one in the wink of an eye.
James Lee Burke
Image
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
Image
We all end up in the same place. Some sonner than others.
James Lee Burke
Image
If you put somebody on a crack pipe and give them a 9 mm Baretta, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what's going to happen next.
James Lee Burke
Image
God bless the Reference Librarians
James Lee Burke
Image
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.
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
One day you'll have a quiet heart.
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
There's nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.
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
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
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.
James Lee Burke