7 Quotes & Sayings By Leonard Michaels

Leonard Michaels has been a published author and journalist since the 1960s, with over 100 books to his credit. He is the author of the best-selling literary essay "The Art of Fiction," and, more recently, "Introduction to Literature: A Novel Approach," which serves as a comprehensive overview of the art form. He is also a contributing editor for Writer's Digest magazine. Born in 1942, his career in journalism and writing began early Read more

Michaels graduated from high school at seventeen and was accepted by Duke University on a scholarship to study journalism. There he wrote for The Daily Tarheel and The Daily Progress, and became the editor of The Daily Advance. It was while at Duke that he realized his true calling: writing fiction.

Deciding to use fiction as a means rather than just a hobby, he decided to pursue a career in writing full time. In 1966, Leonard met his future wife, Susan, when she was attending Duke on a full scholarship from Columbia University. She was working on her Master's degree in English Literature when she met him.

While they were married in 1969, they divorced in 1975. In 1998 Susan Michaels died of cancer at age seventy-nine, leaving her husband alone again in 2002.

1
Courage is continuing to perform your daily tasks, and being hopeful despite the odds, not inflicting your fears on others, and remaining sensitive to their needs and expectations, and also not supposing, because you're dying, nothing matters any more. Leonard Michaels
2
Stories should be natural as apples, brief as lust, long as a thought. Leonard Michaels
3
May 20, '95 - Mississippi calls. She says, "All my working life I have done things to help black people. I can drive into the black part of town where no white person would dare to go. I have nothing to fear. They say, 'Hi there, Mizz Mississippi.' I still call them niggers, but only because of the way they act. I'd have an affair with Johnnie Cochran in a minute." Once she said to me, "I don't see why I should have to feel guilty about the Holocaust. It's not my fault." I hadn't been talking or thinking about the Holocaust, and hadn't told anyone to feel guilty. Her remark came out of nowhere. We were in a diner, about to have a sandwich and suddenly the moment was explosive. Simply being a Jew arouses a peculiar expectation mixed with resentment, even in a highly intelligent woman. Amazing to me is that she doesn't do much but watch television, drink beer, and smoke Marlboros, and yet seethes with dark thoughts and tumultuous feeling. Leonard Michaels
4
Never to have to think of yourself as white is a luxory that makes you deeply stupid. Leonard Michaels
5
Feb. 1, 1965Storm late at night, heavy rain, a thunderous racket, the windows shaking. I heard my name called. A woman’s voice in hell pleading with me to join her. Leonard Michaels
6
Reasons are whores. Leonard Michaels