Quotes from James Clavell

You're a cruel, cold-gutted, heartless bastard but you've got majesty, no doubt about that.

Horses are far worse than men for treachery.

Isn't man but a blossom taken by wind, and only the mountains and the sea and the stars and this land of the gods everlasting?

God gives us intelligence to uncover the wonders of nature. Without the gift, nothing is possible.

The skyScorched by the sun, WeepsFecund tears.

How beautiful life is and how sad! How fleeting, with no past and no future, only a limitless now.

You never know . . . that's what makes life interesting.

So much of 'normal, civilized' life is bull that you can't imagine... What frightens you, doesn't frighten me, what frightens me, you'd laugh at.

Life and death are the same...Leave karma to karma.

Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life - Shogun.

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

Guard yourself and your conscience no one else will and know that a bad decision at the right time can destroy you far more surely than any bullet!

It's always important to take time to study men -- important men. Friends and enemies.

How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable -- all at the same time?

That's the first rule of survival in enemy waters: volunteer nothing.

Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars.

Wars are fought by teenagers, you realize that. They really ought to be fought by the politicians and old people who start these wars." (Interview with Don Swaim of CBS Radio-1986)

The scarcity of years does not necessitate lack of wisdom.

Why is she afraid? he asked. She's not Anjin-san. Just a little nervous. Please excuse her. She's never seen a foreigner close to before. Tell her when the moon's full, barbarians sprout horns and fire comes out of our mouths like dragons.

Men need to whisper secrets, Lady. That's what makes them different from us – they need to share secrets, but we women only reveal them to gain an advantage.

Like dew I was born Like dew I vanish ..and all that I have ever done Is but a dream Within a dream

Patience means restraining yourself. There are seven emotions, Joy, anger, anxiety, adoration, grief, fear, and hate. If a man doesn't give way to these, he's patient. I'm not as strong as I might be but I'm patient.

A man's fate is a man's fate and life is but an illusion.

Blackthorne, beside the gates, was still turmoiled by his boundless joy at her reprieve and he remembered how his own will had been stretched that night of his near-seppuku, when he had had to get up as a man and walk home as a man unsupported, and became samurai. And he watched her, despising the need for this courage, yet understanding it, even honoring it.