James A. Michener Quotes

I'm a complete human being. I'm very emotional and loving. I feel, I hurt, I give, I take, and also I think. I analyze. I'm a sociologist, anthropologist.

Coming up in the streets, I had to learn how to read people early on. I'm a very analytical person. I observe a lot of the things that people don't notice.

I think we have a cultural difficulty with looking at our problems.

I don't know how you can understand other people or yourself if you haven't read a lot of books. I just don't think you're equipped to deal with the demands and decisions of life, particularly in your dealings with other people.

You have to do a lot of listening, you don't just learn out of yourself.

Remember that no relationship is a total waste of time. You can always learn something about yourself.

How on earth do people imagine we equip children for life if we never show them the sorts of issues other people encounter, if we never talk through with them how they might deal with difficulty or violence or unexpected shocks and surprises?

I think that people who are famous tend to be underdeveloped in their humanity skills.

Through time you learn from your experiences. I think I've learned to deal with people a little bit better over time. That in particular has developed a little bit.

I've always been interested in how people think, how they react to challenges in their lives - what makes people tick. I've also always been passionate about social issues and causes, and I wanted to make films that addressed important issues in very human terms.

I've had to deal with all different types of situations - positive and negative and extremes of both.

On land, you can walk away from people, from unpleasant situations. But when you're on a ship for 14 months with 49 other people, if you don't resolve your issues it literally could mean - and this would be an extreme circumstance - the sinking of the ship. You learn a lot about other people. You learn a lot about yourself.

My own being can be judged by the depths I reach in making these historical origins my own.

The ability to reflect is associated with critical thinking and reasoning ability. And the capacity to be alone is one of the highest levels of development. It's important to know how to self-soothe and be confident of other people's love even when they're not there in front of you.

I would not like to try any high stress job. Honestly, I wouldn't like something like a PR job. I can't diffuse situations.

People tend to become more emotionally intelligent as they age and mature.

Be curious enough to keep an open mind to what's happening around you in society. You can look at yourself and the world at the same time.

I think I tend to live in sort of a meta state of existence where I'm always analyzing and analyzing whatever I'm going through at any given moment, and a lot of times I'll reflect back on and go, 'Oh look at that - if I acted this way when that happened, I might not have thought of that that way.'

I can be really annoying, but I also feel like I'm a nice person.

People learn the most about themselves by confronting those with whom they deeply disagree..

… temperament is your basic orientation toward life. The Elizabethans boiled it down to four types: You were choleric or sanguine or melancholy or aggressive. You can be a good leader from any of them. Lincoln was melancholy, but what a president! It’s more to do with how you grow, how you learn from your mistakes.

There are ways that women absorb situations, and I think women are different kinds of listeners. They're different in terms of how they parse out problem solving.

Art and literature should help us to get out of our mental cocoons.

I used to say, 'Hey, man, what kind of a stupid question is that?' to a newspaperman asking me heavy things right after a race when I'm still in an emotional state. Now I at least try to answer.

You find a lot out about people when they're blowing up, as we say, gasping for air, and if they can still hold conversations and be polite.