James A. Michener

“Other things being roughly equal, that man lives most keenly who lives in closest harmony with nature. To be wholly alive a man must know storms, he must feel the ocean as his home or the air as his habitation. He must smell the things of earth, hear the sounds of living things and taste the rich abundance of the soil and sea.”

“If you type adeptly with 10 fingers, you're typing faster than your mind is working.”

“I missed a whole cycle of childhood, but I've never used it as a device for self-pity.”

“I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.”

“I wondered how a man ever got an English girl into bed. What did they do with her hockey stick?”

“Public libraries have been a mainstay of my life. They represent an individual's right to acquire knowledge; they are the sinews that bind civilized societies the world over. Without libraries, I would be a pauper, intellectually and spiritually.”

“When I first pitched my Navy tent on the island of Espiritu Santo to the north of Vila, the natives on nearby Malakula were cannibals. Today, they have representation in the United Nations.”

“For of this world one never sees enough and to dine in harmony with nature is one of the gentlest and loveliest things we can do.”

“I am the product of the American education system. It is a system that has always been on the lookout for bright boys and girls. It spotted me when I was 14, and I owe a tremendous debt to my alma mater.”

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.”

“To travel across Spain and finally to reach Barcelona is like drinking a respectable red wine and finishing up with a bottle of champagne.”

“A person on dialysis undergoes very heavy and irritating treatment, and in time, it seems more than you can bear.”

“I'm just a guy up on a hill writing.”

“We seek God so earnestly, Eliav reflected, not to find Him but to discover ourselves.”

“It may seem contradictory, but in the languid tropics one spends more time contemplating those great good things of sound and sight and smell.”

“אני אוהב לכתוב; אני אוהב את התפתלותן של המילים כאשר הן נשזרות ברגשות אנושיים.”

“אני חושב כי הדבר החשוב ביותר בקריירה של סופר הוא לדעת מה ברצונך לעשות, וכיצד תוכל להגשים זאת.”

“אם אדם מגיע לכך שהוא מוצא את עצמו, עומדת לרשותו חווילה שבה יוכל להתגורר בכבוד כל ימיו.”

“צריך להיות עז לב כדי לדעת מתי עליך לפחד.”

“המדענים חולמים על יישומן של משימות גדולות; המהנדסים מגשימים זאת.”