Changi became my university instead of my prison. Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life - the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving.

James Clavell

Categorized in : Art Experts Inmates

It's a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for the world to see, another in his breast to show to his special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except to himself alone, hidden only God knows where.

James Clavell

real heart men

All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.

James Clavell

middle ifs stories

Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're patient, then you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.

James Clavell

karma hate strong

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.

James Clavell

hate grief strong

Leave the problems of God to God and karma to karma. Today you're here and nothing you do will change that. Today you are alive and here and honored and blessed with good fortune. Look at this suset, it's beautiful, neh? This sunset exists. Tomorrow does not exist. There is only now. Please look. It is so beautiful and it will never happen ever again, never, not this sunset, never in all infinity. Lose yourself in it, make yourself one with nature and do not worry about karma, yours, mine, or that of the village.

James Clavell

karma blessed beautiful

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

James Clavell

knows interesting

Anger is something you should only vent in front of intimates, and friends and relations. Never be angry in front of strangers because you lose face.

James Clavell

stranger should faces

To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline and training is all about.

James Clavell

effort discipline thinking

Isn’t it only through laughter that we become one with the gods and thus can endure life and can overcome all the horror and waste and suffering here on earth? …Isn’t it only through laughter we can stay human?

James Clavell

laughter suffering overcoming

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.

James Clavell

laughter fear laughing

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

James Clavell

shoguns indescribable joy

I write short stories. They may appear big in size, but when you consider it, they're four or five novels in one... In return for picking up one of my books, I'm trying to give them value for their money... the goal of writing any book is to create the illusion that what you are reading is reality and you're part of it.

James Clavell

reading writing book

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!

James Clavell

bullets right-time decision

What can I do to help thee?" he asked. "Believe there is a tomorrow.

James Clavell

tomorrow helping believe

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

James Clavell

karma life-and-death

.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.

James Clavell

planning destruction enemy

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

James Clavell

fleeting beautiful past

Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for 'love' as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.

James Clavell

loyalty christian mean

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

James Clavell

teenager war people

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

James Clavell

paradox eternal littles