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Quotes by James Lee Burke

Each novel should be self-contained. That's what I aim for. Each should deal with a different theme and plot situations. The challenge is to encapsulate events and characters out of the past in such a way that the reader is familiar with the larger story, without being repetitive. That's what art is.
– James Lee Burke
Every artist knows that at some point the gift he has will eventually be made manifest. He will, at some point, see the work he has done improve the lives of others around him. But I think every artist also realizes that time will go away from him, too. Success is a fickle companion.
– James Lee Burke
Every rejection is incremental payment on your dues that in some way will be translated back into your work.
– James Lee Burke
I used to save all my rejection slips because I told myself, one day I'm going to autograph these and auction them. And then I lost the box.
– James Lee Burke
I wouldn't write anything autobiographical. If you've lived a life like Laurence of Arabia, it might be a consideration, but otherwise it's a little bit vain, it seems to me.
– James Lee Burke
If it goes away, the success that I've enjoyed has been way beyond my greatest expectations so I've nothing to complain about.
– James Lee Burke
If you put somebody on a crack pipe and give them a 9 mm Baretta, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what's going to happen next.
– James Lee Burke
Never read bad stuff if you're an artist; it will impair your own game.
– James Lee Burke
That's one of the great advantages of age. You can say, I don't want to, I don't care, you can throw temper tantrums, and nobody minds.
– James Lee Burke
The only thing an artist has to remember is to never lose faith in his vision.
– James Lee Burke
The quest for the grail that you find in early medieval British literature is the same quest you find in Jack Keroac's On the Road.
– James Lee Burke
The story of Ulysses and Agamemnon and Menelaus, of Jesus, of the Good Knight of Chaucer, lives in every one of us.
– James Lee Burke
There's nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.
– James Lee Burke
Today, there are more opportunities for writers in terms of access to larger success, but it's more difficult to publish a literary novel in the lower ranges. In other words, you almost have to hit a home run. You can hit a triple, maybe, but nobody's interested in a single.
– James Lee Burke
Using a first-person narrator is simply a matter of hearing the voice inside yourself.
– James Lee Burke
We decry violence all the time in this country, but look at our history. We were born in a violent revolution, and we've been in wars ever since. We're not a pacific people.
– James Lee Burke
When you find the right people, you never let go. The people who count are the ones who are your friends in lean times. You have all the friends you want when things are going well.
– James Lee Burke
You do it a day at a time. You write as well as you can, you put it in the mail, you leave it under submission, you never leave it at home.
– James Lee Burke