James A. Michener Quotes

The good parts are the people who don't make do. They're the interesting people. Lear doesn't make do.

We are not a TV station that only concentrate on those who are always under light. We are not a TV station for celebrities and for grand politicians and superstars. We are a TV station for the ordinary person. The normal people, ordinary people in the Arab world sees Al Jazeera as their voice.

I like real people - salt-of-the-earth men.

I want to sing simple things for the simple lives of simple people.

The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.

I connect with just plain old everyday people. Human behavior fascinates me, the people who are the nuts and bolts of this country who help hold up the world.

The thing about bikers and truckers is they're just regular folks, and that's definitely my demographic.

I like the grass roots people the most.

I never build myself us. I let the people do that. I'm the most laid-back person, and I let them build me up. If you ask me, I say, 'I''m just a guy playin' some blues.

I like to do stand-up for people who live real life.

One of the things that I'm glad about, though, is that regular people can relate to me.

Pete (Rose) doesn't run with celebrities and he can't stand the phonies. His big buddy in LA ain't Sinatra, it's a funny old groundskeeper.

The most interesting people are never perfect.

I call [ordinary people] real people, because they have in themselves an incredible treasure - stories, a way of speaking, a way of sharing, an innocence and a perversity which I find very interesting to discover little by little.

I like marginal characters, I like real people. I learn more from talking to my plumber when he comes to fix my toilet than I do from meeting a movie star. I think my movies are in the same vein as that.

The working-class folks and the poor, and those normal people living their lives out in the world without the glitter and the fanfare. There is a lot to learn from them.

If to be interesting is to be uncommonplace, it is becoming a question, with me, if there are any commonplace people

I like normal, simple, good people.

What I bring to the interview is respect. The person recognizes that you respect them because you're listening. Because you're listening, they feel good about talking to you. When someone tells me a thing that happened, what do I feel inside? I want to get the story out. It's for the person who reads it to have the feeling . . . In most cases the person I encounter is not a celebrity; rather the ordinary person. "Ordinary" is a word I loathe. It has a patronizing air. I have come across ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. (p. 176)

I think the reason that people fall in love with Sandra Bullock is that she doesn't seem to know it in the same way. She doesn't seem to know it in a way that other gorgeous people maybe would. I think that's what makes her so accessible.

To talk easily with people, you must firmly believe that either you or they are interesting. And even then it's not easy.

Free speech exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free.

I just try to keep that connection to normalcy. I never want to lose that, being normal. People connect with me just as a cool, around-the-way type of guy. I never want to confuse people or go over their heads.

Geeks are generally the most interesting people.

The test of interesting people is that subject matter doesn't matter.