James Clavell Quotations

What you do with strangers is ignore them for. No second chance, no sorry I did it, never accept an apology, but never, ever get angry with strangers.

Anger is one of the most intimate of emotions and to expose it to strangers is one of the most stupid and sickening things to do. Never get angry with strangers because they are strangers.

First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.

Isn't it only laughter we can stay human?

God gives us intelligence to uncover the wonders of nature. Without the gift, nothing is possible.

Blackthorne, beside the gates, was still turmoiled by his boundless joy at her reprieve and he remembered how his own will had been stretched that night of his near-seppuku, when he had had to get up as a man and walk home as a man unsupported, and became samurai. And he watched her, despising the need for this courage, yet understanding it, even honoring it.

How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable -- all at the same time?

Horses are far worse than men for treachery...

It's always important to take time to study men -- important men. Friends and enemies.

What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?