James A. Michener Quotes
Very early on in life, I decided the hell with it: material things weren't for me. Christmas would come, and other kids would have all these presents, and it wouldn't bother me a bit.
Quotes to Explore
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You know, it's a hugely difficult thing to take any work of art or drawing and say 'make that real.'
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Most of the time, the lyrics are kind of like my secret messages to my friends or my boyfriend or my mom or my dad. I would never tell them that these songs are about them or which specific lyric is about somebody. Often, when I sit down to write a lyric, it is in the heat of the moment, and something has just happened.
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I think, for me, Julian Schnabel set a great precedent in being able to cross over so successfully. I feel like his artwork is kind of big, grand, and bombastic, yet the films that he makes are very beautifully sensitive, and I just feel that his filmmaking sensibility is very different from his artwork.
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I never wanted to give up my given name. I'm proud of it, but the only problem was that no one remembered it. It was just a little too awkward, and they mispronounced it so frequently.
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All the women in my family are very dramatic by themselves. They make the biggest things out of nothing. I think that's where I learned a lot about being emotional.
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It didn't scare me to be vulnerable because I think that's when you get something great.
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It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
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My life has been a dream. If someone had to write a story about it, it would seem a little unreal. It's the kind of story I would read and say, 'Nah, that's not possible.'
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I don't know how to make Harper and Alloy want me, not just my name.
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Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.
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'Vanity' means worthlessness.
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The future ain't what it used to be.
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If you only believe that you're an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that's quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.
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Touring helped me understand where I needed to be better in my music.
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I think what probably happens when you put two awkward/clunky people together is that their awkward/clunky world seems like a normal world.
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Find something that you love to do, and find a place that you really like to do it in. I found something I loved to do. I'm a mechanical engineer by training, and I loved it. I still do. My son is a nuclear engineer at MIT, a junior, and I get the same vibe from him. Your work has to be compelling. You spend a lot of time doing it.
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My mother taught me to drive using the 'Detroit Method,' where speed limits and traffic lights are taken as cute suggestions.
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I love coming to London and seeing what people on the street are wearing.
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Even the best parents have to spend so much time making ends meet that they cannot help their kids with homework or afford the extra tutoring that wealthier students enjoy. To address these unjust disparities, we need an early education revolution.
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I have this image of myself as kinda like the Energizer Bunny. I get knocked down, and I pop right back up.
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Goodrich was the biggest acquisition in the history of aerospace.
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As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it.
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Let's make a law that gay people can have birthdays, but straight people get more cake - you know, to send the right message to kids.
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Very early on in life, I decided the hell with it: material things weren't for me. Christmas would come, and other kids would have all these presents, and it wouldn't bother me a bit.
