Academy of Achievement interview (1991)
Contesto: I do believe that everyone growing up faces differential opportunities. With me, it was books and travel and some good teachers. With somebody else, it may be a boy scout master. With somebody else, it will be a clergyman. Somebody else, an uncle who was wiser than the father. I think young people ought to seek that differential experience that is going to knock them off dead center. I was a typical American school boy. I happened to get straight A's and be pretty good in sports. But I had no great vision of what I could be. And I never had any yearning.
My job was to live through Friday afternoon, get through the week, and eat something. And then along came these differential experiences that you don't look for, that you don't plan for, but, boy, you better not miss them. The things that make you bigger than you are. The things that give you a vision. The things that give you a challenge.
James Michener: Frasi in inglese
As quoted in Good Advice (1982) by William Safire and Leonard Safir. Original appearance in Holiday magazine, March 1956, pp. 40-51.
James A. Michener libro Poland
page 567
Poland (1983)
“Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.”
James A. Michener libro Space
Ch. 6 http://books.google.com/books?id=V1UQXxsQTskC&q=%22Scientists+dream+about+doing+great+things+Engineers+do+them%22&pg=PA378#v=onepage <br class="br">Space (1982)
James A. Michener libro Hawaii
statement by Abraham Hewlett, in chapter "From the Farm of Bitterness"
Hawaii (1959)
James A. Michener libro The World Is My Home
The World Is My Home (1991)
Contesto: 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 don't know who my parents were. I know nothing about my inheritance.”
Academy of Achievement interview (1991)
Contesto: I don't know who my parents were. I know nothing about my inheritance. I could be Jewish; I could be part Negro; I could be Irish; I could be Russian. I am spiritually a mix anyway, but I did have a solid childhood fortunately, because of some wonderful women who brought me up. I never had a father or a man in the house, and that was a loss, but you live with that loss.
“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.”
James A. Michener libro Chesapeake
Chesapeake (1978)
“Writers turn dreams into print.”
Origine: Writer's Handbook: Explorations in Writing and Publishing
Interview, Parade magazine (24 November 1991)
James A. Michener libro Poland
page 153
Poland (1983)
James A. Michener libro The Source
The Source (1965) First lines
James A. Michener libro The Covenant
The Covenant (1980) First lines
“I had been sent to Mexico to cover a murder, one of a remarkable kind.”
James A. Michener libro Mexico
Mexico (1992) First lines
Academy of Achievement interview (1991)
James A. Michener libro Hawaii
Hawaii (1959)
As quoted in "The Michener Phenomenon" by Caryn James in The New York Times (8 September 1985)
