174 Quotes by James Lee Burke

"To misuse one’s talent, to be cavalier about it, to set it aside because of fear or sloth is unpardonable."

"I had learned long ago that resolution by itself is not enough; we are what we do, not what we think and feel."

"I looked at Lucas with the pang that a parent feels when he knows his child will be hurt and that it’s no one’s fault and that to try to preempt the rites of passage is an act of contempt for the child’s courage."

"All drunks, particularly those who grew up in alcoholic homes, have that same sense of angst and trepidation, one that has no explainable origins. The fear is not necessarily self-centered, either. It’s like watching someone point a revolver at his temple while he cocks and dry-fires the mechanism, over and over again, until the cylinder rotates a loaded chamber into firing position."

"There’s nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself."

"Tomorrow has no more existence than yesterday, but you can always control now. We live in a series of nows. Think about now."

"Cancer and lightning go where they want. So does political corruption."

"At a certain age, you realize the greatest loss you can experience is a theft you perpetrate upon yourself – the waste of days given us. Is there any more piercing remorse than the realization that a person has thrown away the potential that resides in every sunrise?"

"But everyone has a private cathedral that he earns, a special place to which he returns when the world is too much late and soon, and loss and despair come with the rising of the sun."

"You have two choices in life. You either die or do something with your time. You’re going to be doing something – why not write?"