David Mitchell Quotes - Page 7

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As many truths as men. Occasionally, I glimpse a truer Truth, hiding in imperfect simulacrums of itself, but as I approach, it bestirs itself & moves deeper into the thorny swamp of dissent.

David Mitchell

Moving, Men, Glimpse

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I elbowed my way into the grubby café, bought a pie that tasted of shoe polish and a pot of tea with cork crumbs floating in it, and eavesdropped on a pair of Shetland pony breeders. Despondency makes one hanker after lives one never led. Why have you given your life to books, TC? Dull, dull, dull! The memoirs are bad enough, but all that ruddy fiction! Hero goes on a journey, stranger comes to town, somebody wants something, they get it or they don't, will is pitted against will. "Admire me, for I am a metaphor.

David Mitchell

Book, Hero, Journey

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.169, Random House

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As an experienced editor, I disapprove of flashbacks, foreshadowings, and tricksy devices; they belong in the 1980s with M.A.s in postmodernism and chaos theory.

David Mitchell

Editors, Chaos, Theory

David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.155, Random House Group

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I wonder how many years Suga has been carrying his curse around with him. I forget that other people in the world have broken parts too.

David Mitchell

Years, People, Broken

David Mitchell (2007). “Number9Dream: A Novel”, p.258, Random House

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People b'lief the world is built so an tellin em it ain't so caves the roofs on their heads'n'maybe yours.

David Mitchell

People, Ems, Caves

"Cloud Atlas: A Novel".

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But you have read Madame Bovary?' (I'd never heard of her books.) 'No.

David Mitchell

Book, Heard

David Mitchell (2008). “Black Swan Green”, p.152, Hachette UK

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Men invented money Women invented mutual aid

David Mitchell

Men, Aids, Mutual Aid

David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.143, Random House Group

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There are so many cities in every single city.

David Mitchell

Cities

David Mitchell (2008). “Ghostwritten”, p.106, Hachette UK

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How could I know a famished heart will eat its mind? Can kill its body?

David Mitchell

Heart, Mind, Body

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why human beings despise what is beautiful and good, and seek to destroy the things they need the most

David Mitchell

Beautiful, Needs, Despise

David Mitchell (2007). “Number9Dream: A Novel”, p.209, Random House

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Music’s a wood you walk through.

David Mitchell

Woods, Walks

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... in a cycle as old as tribalism, ignorance of the Other engenders fear; fear engenders hatred; hatred engenders violence; violence engenders further violence until the only "rights", the only law, are whatever is willed by the most powerful.

David Mitchell

Powerful, Fear, Ignorance

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.344, Random House

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Do ants get headaches?

David Mitchell

Ants, Headache

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If, by happiness, you mean the absence of adversity I and all fabricants are the happiest stratum in corpocracy as genomicists insist. However, if happiness means the conquest of adversity or a sense of purpose, or the xercise of one’s will to power, then of all Nea So Copros’s slaves we surely are the most miserable.

David Mitchell

Mean, Adversity, Purpose

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.188, Random House

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Mother used to say escape is never further than the nearest book. Well, Mumsy, no, not really. Your beloved large-print sagas of rags, riches, and heartbreak were no camouflage against the miseries trained on you by the tennis ball launcher of life, were they? But, yes, Mum, there again, you have a point. Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.

David Mitchell

Mother, Real, Book

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.357, Random House

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…and there, in the background, the sky’s sediment had sunk to a place where all the woe of the words ‘I am’ dissolved into blue peace. He said it. ‘The ocean.

David Mitchell

Ocean, Blue, Sky

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas”, p.336, Hachette UK

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The her that lived in her looked out through her eyes, through my eyes, and at the me that lives in me.

David Mitchell

Eye, Her Eyes, Through My Eyes

David Mitchell (2007). “Ghostwritten”, p.54, Vintage

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. . .my dreams are the single unpredictable factor in my zoned days and nights. Nobody allots them, or censors them. Dreams are all I have ever truly owned.

David Mitchell

Dream, Night, Unpredictable

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Power. What do we mean? 'The ability to determine another man's luck.' ...how is it that some men attain mastery over others while the vast majority live and die as minions, as livestock? The answer is a holy trinity. First: God-given gifts of charisma. Second: the discipline to nurture these gifts to maturity, for though humanity's topsoil is fertile with talent, only one seed in ten thousand will ever flower -- for want of discipline. Third: the will to power.

David Mitchell

Flower, Mean, Maturity

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Oh, bein' young ain't easy 'cos ev'rythin' you're puzzlin'n'anxin' you're puzzlin'n'anxin' it for the first time.

David Mitchell

Firsts, Easy, Young

David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.268, Random House Group

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She was widely read enough to appreciate my literary wit but not so widely read that she knew my sources. I like that in a woman.

David Mitchell

Appreciate, Enough, Source

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.362, Random House

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Any society's upper-crust is riddled with immorality, how else d'you think they keep their power? Reputation is king of the public sphere, not private. It is dethroned by public acts.

David Mitchell

Kings, Thinking, Spheres

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas”, p.443, Hachette UK

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I pass through many Me's in the course of my day, each one selfish with his time. The Lying-in-Bed me and the Enjoying-the-Hot-Shower Me are particularly selfish. The Late Me loathes the pair of them.

David Mitchell

Selfish, Lying, Bed

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Anticipating the end of the world is humanity's oldest passtime

David Mitchell

Humanity, World, End Of The World

David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.451, Random House Group

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Perpetual encagement endows any mirage of salvation with credibility.

David Mitchell

Mirages, Salvation, Credibility

David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.193, Random House

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Born: January 12, 1969
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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