James A. Michener
James A. Michener
James Albert Michenerwas an American author of more than 40 books, the majority of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. Michener was known for the popularity of his works; he had numerous bestsellers and works selected for Book of the Month Club. He was also known for his meticulous research behind the books...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth3 February 1907
CountryUnited States of America
The really great writers are people like Emily Bront? who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.
I think young people ought to seek the experience that is going to knock them off center.
I was once asked if I'd like to meet the president of a certain country. I said, "No, but I'd love to meet some sheepherders." The sheepherders, farmers and taxi drivers are often the most interesting people.
Contrary to what people think, I slave over my books.
Not too many people work in a job where, waiting out there are three or four hundred people who are paid to tear apart what you've done. And often they are brighter than you are, or they know more about the subject than you do, or they wish they had written a book themselves, or done a lot better. Or they just don't like it! And you have to live with it.
The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.
I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create reasonably decent societies. I think that young people who want to understand the world can profit from the works of Plato and Socrates, the behaviour of the three Thomases, Aquinas, More and Jefferson - the austere analyses of Immanuel Kant and the political leadership of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.
I feel myself the inheritor of a great background of people. Just who, precisely, they were, I have never known. I might be part Negro, might be part Jew, part Muslim, part Irish. So I can't afford to be supercilious about any group of people because I may be that people.
Many people who want to be writers don't really want to be writers. They want to have been writers. They wish they had a book in print.
A nation becomes what its young people read in their youth. Its ideals are fashioned then, its goals strongly determined.
I was born to a woman I never knew and raised by another who took in orphans. I do not know my background, my lineage, my biological or cultural heritage. But when I meet someone new, I treat them with respect.... For after all, they could be my people.
Unless you think you can do better than Tolstoy, we don't need you
They were a group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men.
It was the silent time before dawn, along the shores of what had been one of the most beautiful lakes in southern Africa.