When I was a boy, one of my favorite places to go was a pine-filled hollow high on the mountain behind our house. It was a place where the industrial song of Coalwood subsided. I would sit on a dead log and listen to nothing except the beating of my own heart and the thoughts racing through my head.

Homer Hickam

Categorized in : Thoughts Song Heart Mountain

You must completely dedicate yourselves to it. To do less will be to let down your country, your state, your parents, your teachers, and ultimately, yourselves. Remember this: The only good citizen is the well-educated citizen.

Homer Hickam

parent teacher country

I had discovered that learning something, no matter how complex, wasn't hard when I had a reason to want to know it.

Homer Hickam

matter reason want

Not much comes easy in this world, Sonny. If it does, it's best to be suspicious of it. It's probably not worth much.

Homer Hickam

easy doe world

Despite the ills of our society, we largely live among compassionate, kind and optimistic people who are striving to do good. [...] Learn how to be happy and keep this in mind: You can't be happy unless you stop being afraid.

Homer Hickam

optimistic mind people

A rocket won't fly unless somebody lights the fuse!

Homer Hickam

fuse rockets light

I would tell people some years later that I was raised an only child and so was my brother.

Homer Hickam

brother children years

I didn’t care…about heroes who could read minds or walk through walls or do magic. The heroes I liked had courage and knew more real stuff than those who opposed them.

Homer Hickam

wall real hero

You've got to be a good reader. So whatever genre that you're interested in, read a lot of books about it and it's better than any kind of writing class you'll ever take. You will absorb techniques and then in a lot of cases you can just start writing using the style of the book or the author that you admire and then your own style will emerge out of that. Be a diligent reader and then try to write seriously, professionally and approach everything in writing in a professional way.

Homer Hickam

writing class book

There are two things every woman really wants: one, she wants to know that a man really loves her, and two, that he isn't going to stop.

Homer Hickam

want men two

I have never been able to understand anyone on this planet who lacks a need for knowledge. Is it not God's greatest gift to us all, this capacity to think, to wonder, to imagine?

Homer Hickam

able needs thinking

Becoming a writer can kind of spoil your reading because you kind of read on tracks. You're reading as someone who wants to enjoy the book but also, as a writer, noticing the techniques that the writer uses and especially the ones that make you want to turn the page to see what happened.

Homer Hickam

track reading book

A man can't hit a woman and stay a man. He becomes a loathsome thing, even to himself. But the woman who stays with such a man panders to his darkness. They both risk their souls.

Homer Hickam

soul darkness men

Always I try to write about people. People are interested in other people always.

Homer Hickam

writing trying people

As I wrote more I became more critical of myself and I think that you have to be your harshest judge. I don't ever believe that what I write is my best work. I always think that I can hone it. I can always think that I can make it a little bit better.

Homer Hickam

writing believe thinking

A lot of folks just get it in their head that, for instance, like writing memoirs is just easy. You just write down what happened. It doesn't quite work that way.

Homer Hickam

easy writing way

It is better to confess ignorance than provide it.

Homer Hickam

ignorance

The key to not getting rejected if you're writing for a magazine, is to know to read that magazine and know everything about them before you ever make a submission.

Homer Hickam

magazines keys writing

Writer's block to me is where you stop because you're afraid to go forward because you're not sure of what really should be happening next and you think, my gosh, if I choose this... you've got a hundred millions of avenues you could possibly go down but it's all an assess of characters.

Homer Hickam

block character thinking

To be a great nation and a great people, you have to do great things.

Homer Hickam

nation great you people

Remember, it isn't the dreamers who have good lives - it's the doers. Remember also what I call the three Ps of success: passion, planning, and perseverance.

Homer Hickam

good perseverance passion success