Quotessence
Home / Authors / David Mitchell
David Mitchell

David Mitchell Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorldDavid MitchellIfsPeopleSpanishHumansThinkingLoveWritingAtlasBookMenMindFirstsSoulWarHuman NatureHumanityReadingGiving

Famous David Mitchell Quotes

“There are different ways people make this place. Sweat, exercise and pain is one way. You can see them in the gyms, in the well-ordered swimming pools. You can see them jogging in the small, worn parks. Another way to make your place is TV. A bright, brash place, always well lit, full of fun and jokes that tell you when to laugh so you never miss them. World news carefully edited so that it’s not too disturbing, but disturbing enough to make you glad that you weren’t born in a foreign country. News with music to tell you who to hate, who to feel sorry for, and who laugh at.”

PeopleWorldTruthTelevision
Book:Ghostwritten
Create image

“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
Create image

“I hear my father-in-law's response..."Naïve, dreaming Adam. He who would do battle with the many-headed hydra of human nature must pay a world of pain & his family must pay it along with him! & only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean!" Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?”

WorldHumansDreamPainLawFatherPayDyingHuman NatureBattleOceanBreathsResponseAdamMultitudesLimitlessIn-lawsHydraFather In Law
Author:David Mitchell
Create image

“For white men, to live is to own, or to try to own more, or to die trying to own more. Their appetites are astonishing! They own wardrobes, slaves, carriages, houses, warehouses, and ships. They own ports, cities, plantations, valleys, mountains, chains of islands. They own this world, its jungles, its skies, and its seas. Yet they complain that Dejima is a prison. They complain they are not free.”

MenWorldTryingDiesHouseWhiteCitiesSeaSkyThis WorldMountainPrisonSlaveComplainingShipsChainsIslandsValleysAppetiteWhite ManJungleAstonishingWardrobePortCarriagesWarehousePlantations
Author:David Mitchell
Create image