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Changi for me — of course it's easy to be wise after the event, and to discuss it cleverly after the event — was about as near as you can get to being dead and still be alive.

— James Clavell Interview with Don Swaim (1986)

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More quotes by James Clavell

The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world — and the most dangerous.

The Fly (1958)

What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?

Shōgun (1975)

The more I know, the more sure I am I know so little. The eternal paradox.

The Fly (1958)

I'm going to work hard not to have any wrong thoughts!

The Children's Story (1982)

Just a moment, children — what does "pledge" mean?

The Children's Story (1982)

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die.

Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

The thunderstorm is a constant phenomenon, raging alternately over some part of the world or the other. Can a single man or creature escape death if all that charge of lightning strikes the earth?

Kalki Krishnamurthy Sivakozhundu of Tiruvazhundur (1939)

So what if a kid dies? God will take care of him.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Clavell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.