Michael Bywater quotes

“One of the rules of history is that people do not write about what is too obvious to mention. And so the information, having never been recorded, is now lost for ever.”
-- Michael Bywater

Source : "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" by Michael Bywater, www.theguardian.com. October 22, 2004.

#Writing Quotes #History Quotes #People Quotes

“Primate books are good for us. They remind us that we're primates, too. And the embarrassing primate books are best. Macachiavellian Intelligence is an excellently embarrassing primate book, and just the thing to make us blush and shuffle our feet.”
-- Michael Bywater

#Book Quotes #Feet Quotes #Embarrassing Quotes

“America, the Idea of: We yearned for its beer and jazz, its smoke-filled nightclubs, its Edward Hopper bars, the melancholy of rainy Manhattan Gershwin nights... the America we yearned for has gone. Did it ever exist?”
-- Michael Bywater

#Beer Quotes #Night Quotes #Ideas Quotes

“Ideally, you should be your own hero, just as I am mine.”
-- Michael Bywater

#Hero Quotes #Should Quotes #Mines Quotes

“My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”

“The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.”

“Because of a friend, life is a little stronger, fuller, more gracious thing for the friend's existence, whether he be near or far. If the friend is close at hand, that is best; but if he is far away he still is there to think of, to wonder about, to hear from, to write to, to share life and experience with, to serve, to honor, to admire, to love.”

“It came about as follows: over the years when I was involved in dianetics, I wrote the beginnings of many stories. I would get an idea, and then write the beginning, and then never touch it again.”

“History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.”

“Freedom does not always win. This is one of the bitterest lessons of history.”

“We, while noting many things amiss about Victorian society, more often sense them judging us.”

“History is not history unless it is the truth.”

“There's the South Pole, said Christopher Robin, and I expect there's an East Pole and a West Pole, though people don't like talking about them.”

“My goal has been to encourage jointness, to push people to think of affiliations rather than to operate as solo entrepreneurs.”