James Clavell Quotes

He had long since discovered that peaceful sleep could provide the answer to most puzzles, and if not, what did it really matter? Wasn’t life just a dewdrop within a dewdrop?

.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.

"Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars." (Interview with Don Swaim of CBS Radio-1986)

Yesterday, because of Mrs. Struan’s letter to him, he had been confronted with an immortal truth: however loyal you are to a company, however much service you give “the company,” the company can and will spit you out at its whim, without conscience.

If the Truth is already clear, what is the use of meditation?’ ” “ ‘And if the Truth is hidden?’ ” Toranaga said. “ ‘It’s already clear,’ ” Hiro-matsu answered correctly. The quotation was from the ancient Tantric Buddhist teacher, Saraha.

Changi for me — of course it's easy to be wise after the event, and to discuss it cleverly after the event — was about as near as you can get to being dead and still be alive.

— No tienes que llorar, O-chan. La vida sólo es un sueño dentro de un sueño — dijo el viejo

Gods are like people. They believe anything if you tell them right way.

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

Didn’t JFK give Khrushchev a written promise not to invade Cuba, not to permit an invasion from American territory — or from any other place in the Western Hemisphere? Written, by God! So now, a hostile European power, Soviet Russia, totally against your Monroe Doctrine, is openly established ninety miles off your coast, the borders of which are guaranteed in writing by your own President and ratified by your own Congress. The Big K pulled off a colossal coup never duplicated in your whole history. And all for nothing!

If you're a sailor, best not know how to swim. Swimming only prolongs the inevitable — if the sea wants you and your time has come.

The law may upset reason but reason may never upset the law, or our whole society will shred like an old tatami. The law may be used to confound reason, reason must certainly not be used to overthrow the law.

All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.

...by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.

It's a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where.