Home / Authors / Robert MacNeil Biography

Robert MacNeil Biography

Novelist

Robert MacNeil is an American novelist born on January 19, 1931. His works are known for their profound character development and emotional expression.

Related Quotes

“Change is legitimate and inevitable, for our language is a mighty river, picking up silt and flotsam here and discarding it there, but growing ever wider and richer.”

Language Growing Rivers Inevitable Flotsam

Author:Robert MacNeil

“I think one of the lessons we learn in life - and it's an old lesson, but each of us has to learn it, if he does, individually - and that is that, in human relations, particularly sexual relations and so on, the person you might most trust and feel most comfortable and easy with isn't necessarily the person your heart is going to fall for.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Humans Heart Persons Doe Might Fall Easy Lessons Comfortable Relation Human Relations

Author:Robert MacNeil

“You learn, just as you learn good manners, how to approach things with a certain amount of diplomacy.”

Certain Amount Approach Manners Diplomacy Good Manners

Author:Robert MacNeil

“Parents can plant magic in a child's mind through certain words spoken with some thrilling quality of voice, some uplift of the heart and spirit.”

Mind Heart Children Spirit Certain Parent Voice Quality Magic Plant Uplifting Parenthood Thrilling

Author:Robert MacNeil

“I am not really retired, and may never be completely, but I can't think of a better place to contemplate retirement than New York City.”

Thinking May I Can Cities New York Retirement New York City Contemplating Better Place Retired

Author:Robert MacNeil

“Yes, after some time spent last year on other commitments, most of them speaking engagements, I am now about halfway through a novel that I hope will come out in 1998.”

Years Lasts Novel Commitment Engagement Last Year Halfway Time Spent

Author:Robert MacNeil

“Wordstruck is exactly what I was—and still am: crazy about the sound of words, the look of words, the taste of words, the feeling for words on the tongue and in the mind.”

Mind Looks Stills Feelings Sound Crazy Taste Tongue

Author:Robert MacNeil

“Words make another place, a place to escape to with your spirit alone.”

Writing Spirit

Author:Robert MacNeil

“I grew up in kind of the last generation of Canadians who thought things that were happening in Britain were more important, almost, than what was happening in Canada. And my mother was fervently of that opinion.”

Kind Important Lasts Mother Opinion Generations Grew Grew Up Happenings Britain Canada Glowing

Author:Robert MacNeil

“We spent a month in Japan last year, a week in Istanbul for the United Nations, and nearly three months in my native Nova Scotia, where my two brothers have homes; and we'll go back there this summer.”

Years Two Home Lasts Three Nations United Week Brother Months Summer Native Japan Last Year United Nations Three Months Istanbul Two Brothers Nova Scotia Novas

Author:Robert MacNeil

“From my mother came the idea that going down to the sea repaired the spirit. That is where she walked when she was sad or worried or lonely for my father. If she had been crying, she came back composed; if she had left angry with us, she returned in good humor. So we naturally believed that there was a cleansing, purifying effect to be had; that letting the fresh wind blow through you mind and spirits as well as your hair and clothing purged black thoughts; that contemplating the ceaseless motion of the waves calmed a raging spirit.”

“And I'm in favor of that because I have a gay son, who's a very successful theater designer.”

Successful Son Pride Gay Theater Favors Designer Gay Pride Gay Son

Author:Robert MacNeil

“The greatest luxury is being able to go to movies and plays now and then in the afternoons.”

Play Able Luxury Afternoon Now And Then

Author:Robert MacNeil

“After I became a citizen, I felt freer to say what I thought about this country, both negative and positive. I think I had been, consciously and subconsciously, biting my tongue in the past.”

Thinking Country Past Felt Citizens Negative Tongue Biting Negative And Positive

Author:Robert MacNeil

“I never wanted to be a pundit.”

Wanted Pundits

Author:Robert MacNeil

“I'm happy to have my own opinion and air it when I think it's necessary.”

Thinking My Own Opinion Air

Author:Robert MacNeil

“Television has created a nation of news junkies who tune in every night to get their fix on the world.”

World Night Nations Television News Tunes Every Night Junkie

Author:Robert MacNeil

“Well, I had a small degree, that little infection of skepticism about America which resides in the minds of even America's closest friends. That America can't be quite as good as it says it is. And why does it need so relentlessly to keep saying how good it is?”

Needs Mind Wells Littles Doe America Degrees Closest Skepticism Infection Closest Friends

Author:Robert MacNeil

About the Author

Born: January 19, 1931
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 18

Books & Sources

Similar Authors

Sheridan AndersonBrowse related quotes
Colin FletcherBrowse related quotes
Kyoshi TakahamaBrowse related quotes
William VogtBrowse related quotes
George W. SearsBrowse related quotes
Amy YasbeckBrowse related quotes
Tony HissBrowse related quotes
Stephanie TourlesBrowse related quotes
William BarnesBrowse related quotes
Dan KileyBrowse related quotes