152 Quotes by Pete Hamill

I urged myself to live in a state of complete consciousness, even when that meant pain or boredom." - Pete Hamill.

I discovered very early that my instrument wasn't my voice," he said to me once. "It was the microphone.

The cause of death was always life. Across many years now, he had comforted people he knew would soon die. He hoped his consoling whispers would do them no harm. He hoped too that he could reduce their immediate pain. But he could not carry them around in his head like luggage. He had to examine with all the intensity he could muster, do what he could, avoid harm, and then forget them.

It's odd being an American now. Most of us are peaceful, but here we are again, in our fifth major war of this century.

There is a growing feeling that perhaps Texas is really another country, a place where the skies, the disasters, the diamonds, the politicians, the women, the fortunes, the football players and the murders are all bigger than anywhere else.

He steps on stage and draws the sword of rhetoric, and when he is through, someone is lying wounded and thousands of others are either angry or consoled.

Say what you will about him Ed Koch is still the best show in town.

New Yorkers, in general, love disaster. They love blizzards, power failures, etc. (I don't mean that they loved September 11.) A shared disaster brings them together more - ethnically, racially - because the disaster affects almost all of them, making no distinctions. Their manners are generally very good indeed. And their generosity can be without limits.

He was a very quiet guy, unlike the rest of the rabble, ... He had a low-key, wicked sense of humor. I had no idea that he was writing anything until someone called me up and said, 'Frank McCourt's written this amazing book,' which turned out to be 'Angela's Ashes.'