I decided (after listening to a "talk radio" commentator who abused, vilified, and scorned every noble cause to which I had devoted my entire life) that I was both a humanist and a liberal, each of the most dangerous and vilified type. I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create a reasonably decent society. Furthermore, I am terrified of restrictive religious doctrine, having learned from history that when men who adhere to any form of it are in control, common men like me are in peril. Furthermore, I do not believe that pure reason can solve the perpetual problems unless it is modified by poetry and art and social vision. So I am a humanist. And if you want to charge me with being the most virulent kind—a secular humanist—I accept the accusation. [Interview, Parade magazine, 24 November 1991]

— James A. Michener

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.

— James A. Michener

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home.

— James A. Michener

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

— James A. Michener

It may seem contradictory, but in the languid tropics one spends more time contemplating those great good things of sound and sight and smell.

— James A. Michener

It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.

— James A. Michener

It took her three seconds-one, two, three-to know that her destiny required her to join this man, and his gun and his wagon, and his waiting horses. She had no conception of what was being asked of her, but she knew that there could be no viable alternative. She dashed inside the orphanage and grabbed the few things that belonged to her.

— James A. Michener

I wondered how a man ever got an English girl into bed. What did they do with her hockey stick?

— James A. Michener

No man leaves where he is and seeks a distant place unless he is in some respect a failure.

— James A. Michener

Only the rocks live forever, Gray Wolf said.

— James A. Michener