John Jakes Quotes

• Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.

  John Jakes

  Positive, Being Yourself, Believe

  FaceBook post by John Jakes from Sep 19, 2014

  66 Copy quote

• We are all dying of life.

  John Jakes

  Dying

  John Jakes (2012). “Love and War”, p.375, Open Road Media

  15 Copy quote

• Spend as much time as you can with your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open.

  John Jakes

  Eye, Ears, Mouths

  6 Copy quote

• Libraries are magical places. There's nothing quite like strolling the hushed aisles, letting your eye rove along dimly lit shelves. Each spine, each title, seems to beckon with a promise of incredible wonders, surprises, and adventures.

  John Jakes

  Adventure, Eye, Promise

  8 Copy quote

• The first treasure California began to surrender after the Gold Rush as the oldest: her land.

  John Jakes

  Land, California, Gold

  John Jakes (2012). “California Gold”, p.28, Open Road Media

  28 Copy quote

• Be persistent. Editors change; tastes change; editorial markets change. Too many beginning writers give up too easily.

  John Jakes

  Giving Up, Editors, Taste

  4 Copy quote

• Going after anything worthwile in life entailed risk, of course. A man of ambition and courage didn't let that stop or delay him. A man accepted the dangers, the element of chance. If he didn't, he won nothing.

  John Jakes

  Ambition, Men, Risk

  John Jakes (2012). “Homeland”, p.253, Open Road Media

  6 Copy quote

• I have always had a special affinity for libraries and librarians, for the most obvious reasons. I love books. (One of my first Jobs was shelving books at a branch of the Chicago Public Library.) Libraries are a pillar of any society. I believe our lack of attention to funding and caring for them properly in the United States has a direct bearing on problems of literacy, productivity, and our inability to compete in today's world. Libraries are everyman's free university.

  John Jakes

  Jobs, Believe, Book

  8 Copy quote

• No writer should minimize the factor that affects everyone, but is beyond control: luck.

  John Jakes

  Luck, Should, Beyond Control

  FaceBook post by John Jakes from Mar 16, 2015

  4 Copy quote

• The pain comes from knowing that we have never been safe, and therefore will never be safe again. It comes from knowing we can never be so ignorant again. It comes from knowing we can never be children again. Losing innocence. Remembering heaven. That was the essence of hell.

  John Jakes

  Children, Pain, Sunset

  FaceBook post by John Jakes from Dec 22, 2014

  6 Copy quote

• Guilty she might be. But what human being was not? There were things in her past she needn't be ashamed of, things to be proud of; she wouldn't surrender so meekly to a condemning judgment.

  John Jakes

  Past, Proud, Might

  John Jakes (2012). “The Furies”, p.584, Open Road Media

  4 Copy quote

• The pain comes from more than the facts of circumstance, or the deeds of others. It comes from within. From understanding what we lost. It comes from knowing how foolish we were - vain, arrogant children - when we thought ourselves happy. It comes from knowing how fragile and doomed the old ways were, just when we thought them and ourselves, secure!. The pain comes from knowing we have never been safe, and therefore will never be safe again. It comes from knowing we can never be children again.

  John Jakes

  Children, Pain, Knowing

  7 Copy quote

• Losing innocence. Remembering Heaven. That was the essence of Hell

  John Jakes

  Essence, Heaven, Innocence

  John Jakes (2013). “The North and South Trilogy: North and South, Love and War, and Heaven and Hell”, p.3369, Open Road Media

  4 Copy quote

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