UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO
The James A. Michener Centennial Celebration
Michener Quotations
An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.
Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I'm one of the world's great rewriters.
I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.
If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.
Russia, France, Germany and China. They revere their writers. America is still a frontier country that almost shudders at the idea of creative expression.
The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.