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.
James A. MichenerRead
Every animal that walks the earth, or swims, or flies is precious beyond description, something so rare and wonderful that it equals the stars or the ocean or the mind of man.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the intrinsic value and rarity of all forms of animal life.
James A. Michener's quote highlights the profound worth of every creature on Earth, likening their rarity and significance to the vastness of the stars, the ocean, and the human mind. It suggests that just as we marvel at the beauties of nature and the complexities of humanity, we should acknowledge and cherish the unique role that each animal plays in our world.
In practice
During a nature conservation talk, this quote can inspire attendees to appreciate wildlife.
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.
Whenever I start a book, I swear it's going to be a short one. But then it's, 'Who was his grandfather? And how did he get there in the first place? And what kind of animals is he chasing?'
Rampaging horsemen can conquer; only the city can civilize.
I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.
If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.
I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.
One thing is made of another, and nature allows no new creation except at the price of death.
The moon was a sharply defined crescent and the sky was perfectly clear. The stars shone with such fierce, contained brilliance that it seemed absurd to call the night dark.
The Montana sunset lay between the mountains like a giant bruise from which darkened arteries spread across a poisoned sky.
Saving Greenland is both a metaphor and a precondition for saving civilization. If its ice sheet melts, sea levels will rise 23 feet. Hundreds of coastal cities will be abandoned. The rice growing river deltas of Asia will be under water. There will be hundreds of millions of rising-sea refuges. The word that comes to mind is chaos. If we cannot mobilize to save the Greenland ice sheet; we probably cannot save civilization as we know it.
If wilderness is outlawed, only outlaws can save wilderness.
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