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David Mitchell

David Mitchell Quotes

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Famous David Mitchell Quotes

“I got a rejection letter from an editor at HarperCollins, who included a report from his professional reader. This report shredded my first-born novel, laughed at my phrasing, twirled my lacy pretensions around and gobbed into the seething mosh pit of my stolen clichés. As I read the report, the world became very quiet and stopped rotating. What poisoned me was the fact that the report's criticisms were all absolutely true. The sound of my landlady digging in the garden got the world moving again. I slipped the letter into the trash... knowing I'd remember every word.”

WorldWritingFirstsFactsRememberMovingSoundBornNovelKnowingReaderQuietGardenCriticismLettersRejectionReportsEditorsLaughedStolenTrashPitsDiggingPretensionSeethingRotatingRejection Letters
Author:David Mitchell
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“Spent the fortnight gone in the music room reworking my year's fragments into a 'sextet for overlapping soloists': piano, clarinet, 'cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor; in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky? Shan't know until it's finished, and by then it'll be too late.”

KnowsYearsFirstsOrderLanguageRoomsGoneColorKeysLateFinishedScalesPianoRevolutionaryToo LateSoloFragmentsViolinInterruptedInterruptionsSuccessorsFlutesOverlappingClarinetFortnightOboes
Book:Cloud Atlas: A Novel
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“Power. What do we mean? 'The ability to determine another man's luck.' ...how is it that some men attain mastery over others while the vast majority live and die as minions, as livestock? The answer is a holy trinity. First: God-given gifts of charisma. Second: the discipline to nurture these gifts to maturity, for though humanity's topsoil is fertile with talent, only one seed in ten thousand will ever flower -- for want of discipline. Third: the will to power.”

MenWantFirstsMeanHumanityDiesGivenAbilityAnswersTalentFlowerDisciplineHolyThousandTenThirdsLuckMajorityDetermineSeedsMaturityMasteryNurtureAnother ManWill PowerCharismaFertileTrinityLivestockMinionsHoly TrinityTopsoil
Author:David Mitchell
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