David Mitchell Quotes - Page 9

Quotes about:

• The earth's a door if you press your ear against it.

  David Mitchell

  Doors, Ears, Earth

  "Black Swan Green". Book by David Mitchell, www.theguardian.com. April 2006.

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• I hear my father-in-law's response..."Naïve, dreaming Adam. He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain & his family must pay it along with him! & only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!" Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?

  David Mitchell

  Dream, Pain, Father

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• A life can get knocked into a new orbit by a car crash, a lottery win or just a bleary-eyed consultant giving bad news in a calm voice.

  David Mitchell

  Winning, Voice, Giving

  "Once upon a life: David Mitchell" by David Mitchell, www.theguardian.com. May 8, 2010.

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• Oh, diplomacy ... it mops up war's spillages; legitimizes its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.

  David Mitchell

  Strong, War, Mean

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.443, Random House Group

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• As long as you can Houdini your way out of the Sisyphean constraints then originality happens.

  David Mitchell

  Long, Way, Originality

  "David Mitchell at Writers and Readers week, New Zealand". "The Book Show" with Ramona Koval, www.abc.net.au. March 30, 2008.

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• Science devises ever bloodier means of war until humanity's powers of destruction overcome our powers of creation and our civilisation drives itself to extinction.

  David Mitchell

  War, Mean, Humanity

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.443, Random House Group

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• I'm not from a milieu where high-register language or philosophical ideas were welcome.

  David Mitchell

  Philosophical, Ideas, Welcome

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• Writing is probably one-fifth coming up with the stuff, and four-fifths self-editing again and again and again.

  David Mitchell

  Writing, Editing, Self

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• Lunatics are writers whose works write them.

  David Mitchell

  Writing

  David Mitchell (2008). “Ghostwritten”, p.401, Hachette UK

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• A novelist needs to know his own strong points and weak points.

  David Mitchell

  Strong, Novelists, Needs

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• I have always preferred maps to books. They don't answer you back.

  David Mitchell

  Book, Answers, Maps

  David Mitchell (2007). “Ghostwritten”, p.15, Vintage

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• Time is the speed at which the past decays.

  David Mitchell

  Past, Decay, Speed

  David Mitchell (2008). “Cloud Atlas: A Novel”, p.235, Random House

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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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• I still haven't quite got used to eating live fish.

  David Mitchell

  Eating, Used, Fishes

  "What's in your basket?". Interview with Olivia Gordon, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2007.

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• I think the story is the most ancient form of human entertainment.

  David Mitchell

  Thinking, Stories, Entertainment

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• I think words operate like musical notes that the eyeball hears.

  David Mitchell

  Thinking, Musical, Notes

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• I understand now that boundaries between noise and sound are conventions. All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so.

  David Mitchell

  Waiting, Sound, Atlas

  "Fictional character: Robert Frobisher". "Cloud Atlas", 2012.

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• Who was blowing on the nape of my neck?

  David Mitchell

  Necks

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• The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.

  David Mitchell

  Flesh, Spirit, Weak

  David Mitchell (2012). “Cloud Atlas (Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition): A Novel”, p.183, Random House Group

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• Try this for deviancy: fabricants are mirrors held up to purebloods' conscience; what purebloods see reflected there sickens them. So they blame you for holding the mirror." I hid my shock by asking when purebloods might blame themselves. Mephi replied, "History suggests, not until they are made to.

  David Mitchell

  Mirrors, Trying, Asking

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• Pain is strong, aye - but friends' eyes, more strong." I told him that he knows next to nothing about me & I know nothing about him. He jabbed at his eyes & jabbed at mine, as if that single gesture were ample explanation.

  David Mitchell

  Strong, Pain, Eye

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• If losers can exploit what their adversaries teach them, yes, losers can become winners in the long term.

  David Mitchell

  Long, Loser, Winner

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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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• 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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• I'm from a time and place where bigheadedness was a really savage crime, and you'd get cut down for it by your peers and parents.

  David Mitchell

  Cutting, Parent, Savages

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