179 Quotes by James Clavell

There is no dignity for either the sufferer or the torturer

Guard yourself and your conscience no one else will and know that a bad decision at the right time can destroy you far more surely than any bullet!

How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.

I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one. ... In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money. ... the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.

So much of "normal, civilized" life is bull that you can't imagine. ... What frightens you, doesn't frighten me, what frightens me, you'd laugh at.

The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world, and the most dangerous.

.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.

To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline and training is all about.

Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life - Shogun.