James Clavell quotes - page 2

All his life he had heard legends told among pilots and sailormen about the incredible riches of Portugal's secret empire in the East, how they had by now converted the heathens to Catholicism and so held them in bondage, where gold was as cheap as pig iron, and emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and sapphires as plentiful as pebbles on a beach.
If the Catholic part's true, he told himself, perhaps the rest is too. (James Clavell)

Perhaps my mommy should go back to school. Perhaps she should.

James Clavell

Now the sun touched the horizon and the man reined in his horse tiredly, glad that the time for prayer had come.

James Clavell

Just a moment, children - what does "pledge" mean?

James Clavell

God bless mommy and daddy, and please can we have some candy.

James Clavell

When you have an enemy it is wise to know his ways. The King knew as much about Grey as any man could know about another.

James Clavell

Help! Help me! Please help me! Help me!

James Clavell

So much of 'normal, civilized' life is bull that you can't imagine. ... What frightens you, doesn't frighten me, what frightens me, you'd laugh at.

James Clavell

For Those Who Were There And Are Not.For Those Who Were There And Are For Him. But Most, For Her.

James Clavell

First she studied her husband's flower arrangement. He had chosen the blossom of a single white wild rose and put a single pearl of water on the green leaf, and set it on red stones. Autumn is coming, he was suggesting with the flower, talking through the flower, do not weep for the time of fall, the time of dying when the earth begins to sleep; enjoy the time of beginning again and experience the glorious cool of the autumn air on this summer evening...soon the tear will vanish and the rose, only the stones will remain - soon you and I will vanish and only the stones will remain.

James Clavell

Your daddy had to go back to school a little. He had some strange thoughts - and he wanted other grown-ups to believe them. It's not right for others to believe wrong thoughts, is it? (James Clavell)

I'm going to pray to our leader every time!

James Clavell

Because Johnny was especially clever I think we should make him monitor for the whole week. Don't you?

James Clavell

Everyone just had to learn it to say it. The Children's Story came into being that day. It was then that I realized how completely vulnerable my child's mind was - any mind for that matter - under controlled circumstances.

James Clavell

Perhaps were using the wrong name. Instead of God, let's say "Our Leader." Let's pray to our leader for candy!

James Clavell

I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one... In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money... the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.

James Clavell

We have a saying that time has no single measure, that time can be like frost or lightning or a tear or siege or storm or sunset, or even like a rock.

James Clavell

You must be patient before you criticize.

James Clavell

I can transport matter - anything - at the speed of light, perfectly.

James Clavell

Changi was set like a pearl on the eastern tip of Singapore Island, iridescent under the bowl of tropical skies.

James Clavell

Changi changed everyone, changed values permanently. For instance, it gave you a dullness about death - we saw too much of it to have the same sort of meaning to outsiders, to normal people. (James Clavell)

These men too were criminals. Their crime was vast. They had lost a war. And they had lived.

James Clavell

I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving.

James Clavell

Closer, Changi lost its beauty and became what it was - an obscene forbidding prison.

James Clavell

I asked all kinds of people of every age, "You know the 'I pledge allegiance...'" but before I could finish, at once they would all parrot it, the words almost always equally blurred.

James Clavell

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