Jim Harrison Quotes

Powerful Jim Harrison for Daily Growth

About Jim Harrison

Jim Harrison (1937-2016) was an acclaimed American author known for his evocative prose and deeply humanistic themes. Born in Grayling, Michigan on March 13, 1937, Harrison grew up in a rural environment that would later influence much of his work. He attended Michigan State University and the University of Montana before earning an MFA from the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop in 1965. Harrison's writing career began in earnest with the publication of "Legends of the Fall" in 1979, a novel that was later adapted into a successful film. This seminal work showcased Harrison's ability to craft powerful stories from the rugged American landscape and its inhabitants. His other notable novels include "Wolf: A Novel of the West," "Dalva," and "The Great Leader." In addition to his novels, Harrison was also a prolific poet and essayist. His poetry collections, such as "Julip: Poems" and "Livingston, Montana," reveal a deep connection with nature and a profound sense of place. His essays, collected in volumes like "Signals of One Human Being," delve into topics ranging from the joys of cooking to the complexities of human relationships. Throughout his career, Harrison was influenced by a diverse range of authors, including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, and Gabriel García Márquez. However, it was his unique voice and perspective that set him apart. His writing explores themes of love, loss, nature, and the human condition with an honesty and intimacy that resonates deeply with readers. Jim Harrison passed away on March 26, 2016, leaving behind a body of work that continues to captivate readers and inspire new generations of writers. His legacy lives on in the power of his words and the unforgettable characters he brought to life.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Happiness is a field of blueberries in early summer."

This quote by Jim Harrison suggests that true happiness lies in simple, natural joys – in this case, a field of ripe blueberries during early summer. It metaphorically symbolizes contentment found in the beauty, abundance, and simplicity of nature, evoking feelings of peace, satisfaction, and appreciation for life's basic pleasures.

"The world changes according to the way we look at it."

Jim Harrison's quote emphasizes the powerful role of perception in shaping our reality. It suggests that our understanding, interpretation, and attitude towards the world around us significantly impact how the world actually unfolds for us. In other words, our perspective not only reflects but also actively creates our experiences and the world we inhabit. This idea underscores the importance of mindfulness, optimism, curiosity, and empathy in shaping a more positive and fulfilling life.

"The only thing that matters is what you can keep within yourself."

This quote by Jim Harrison underscores the importance of personal growth, self-reflection, and inner wisdom. It suggests that the true value lies in our ability to hold on to experiences, knowledge, emotions, and insights that shape our character, enrich our souls, and guide our actions. In essence, it encourages us to focus on cultivating our inner selves, rather than seeking external validation or accumulation of material possessions.

"Starting a day without coffee is like going to a party where no one is drinking."

This quote suggests that, for some individuals, having coffee in their daily routine is as essential as enjoying alcohol at a social gathering. Just as alcohol enhances the mood and experience of a party, coffee serves a similar purpose by energizing and enriching the start of one's day. The implication is that both coffee and alcohol play crucial roles in providing comfort, pleasure, and sociability in their respective contexts.

"The last good thing I ever did was quit thinking."

This quote by Jim Harrison suggests a realization that overthinking can often lead to unnecessary stress, self-doubt, and paralysis. By choosing to stop thinking, the individual implies a decision to act spontaneously or intuitively instead of being bogged down by excessive analysis, which may not always be productive. In essence, Harrison's quote encourages trusting one's instincts and taking decisive action.

The old fun thing is when somebody typed up the first chapter of War and Peace. And then made a precis of the rest of it and sent it out and only one publisher recognized it.

- Jim Harrison

Rest, Old, Fun Thing, Chapter

I had a concussion I didn't get over for three years. I think that's why I'm goofy.

- Jim Harrison

Think, Over, I Think, Goofy

There aren't any real dumb people in my voices. It's always irritated me about Hollywood dialogue - there's so much dialogue that would just bore a Ford mechanic. This is not how people talk.

- Jim Harrison

Hollywood, Dumb People, Ford

We are delightfully trapped by our memories. I can't drink a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieux Telegraphe without revisiting a hotel bistro in Luzerne, Switzerland, where I ate a large bowl of a peppery Basque baby goat stew. A sip and a bite. A bite and sip. Goose bumps come with the divine conjunction of food and wine.

- Jim Harrison

Bowl, Bottle, Revisiting, Goose

Whatever I learned reading 'Scientific American,' nothing can finally compete with your own observations.

- Jim Harrison

Compete, Scientific, Learned, Observations

I admit to occasionally sharing the financial hysteria of the rest of the country, the urgency to save more for the family in case you can't write any more.

- Jim Harrison

Financial, Rest, Country, Hysteria

I think the trouble with artists or chefs who whine about criticism is that if you love the good reviews, you have to at least read the bad ones.

- Jim Harrison

Love, Think, I Think, Reviews

The reviews are getting better, but they always do, in time, if you're still alive.

- Jim Harrison

Better, Always, Getting, Reviews

The big curse of America, to me, is skinless, boneless chicken breasts. They're banal and relatively flavorless. The rest of the world's trying to get some fat to eat, and we're trying to ban it from our diet.

- Jim Harrison

Rest, Big, Some, Ban

Your kids inevitably want to move where they had their vacations when they were younger.

- Jim Harrison

Younger, Move, Vacations, Inevitably

My biggest pet peeve is when you go to a fine restaurant, and it's like a mausoleum inside. Good food should be joyful. There should be laughter and chatter, not people sitting there like they're in a funeral-parlor waiting room.

- Jim Harrison

Good, Waiting, Inside, Chatter

Your subconscious mind is trying to help you all the time. That's why I keep a journal - not for chatter but for mostly the images that flow into the mind or little ideas. I keep a running journal, and I have all of my life, so it's like your gold mine when you start writing.

- Jim Harrison

My Life, Mostly, Chatter

I wasn't taking myself seriously as a novelist, and then it became my day job.

- Jim Harrison

Myself, Became, Day Job, Novelist

I became aesthetically obsessed with language. And 'literary artist' - poet and novelist - is a calling. You are called to it the way preachers are called to preaching the gospel.

- Jim Harrison

Artist, Obsessed, Became, Novelist

Food is a great literary theme. Food in eternity, food and sex, food and lust. Food is a part of the whole of life. Food is not separate.

- Jim Harrison

Eternity, Separate, Literary, Lust

I do have trouble with titles.

- Jim Harrison

Trouble, Titles

I don't know what psychotherapy does. I have been seeing the same person for 26 years now.

- Jim Harrison

Seeing, Same, Been, Psychotherapy

The trajectory started when I was on the roof of our house looking out at a swamp when I was 19. I had written for several years, starting at about 15, but that day on the roof I took my vows and acknowledged my calling.

- Jim Harrison

Roof, Vows, Took, Trajectory

New Yorkers are mostly interested in New York - in case you haven't noticed.

- Jim Harrison

New York, New, Mostly, Case

If all I did was answer the correspondence I get, that would be my job.

- Jim Harrison

Answer, Get, Would, Correspondence

Sometimes, discomfort is very uncomfortable. Anybody can get occasionally tired of it, and then it can change fast, where it's comfort that disturbs you.

- Jim Harrison

Sometimes, Anybody, Very, Discomfort

You have to temporarily be the character in order to understand him. It's sort of what they used to call 'shape-shifting.'

- Jim Harrison

Character, Understand, Call, Temporarily

I'm outdoors a lot, so I get dark. Guess who gets stopped? I've been pulled over, and they ask, 'Where are you from?' I say, 'Montana.' They say, 'Are you sure? And I say, 'I'm reasonably sure I'm from Montana, but you know, this is a dream life.' You start on this shtick with them and it's fun.

- Jim Harrison

Life, Been, Lot, Reasonably

I do mourn my characters. I wrote an essay once where I was sure that far back in a marsh there was a hummock - a little hill of hardwoods - and an old farm house, where all the heroines in my novels lived together with all my beloved dead dogs. I've discussed this with my therapist, naturally. He says it's okay in fair amounts.

- Jim Harrison

Dead, Fair, Back, Beloved

The person that was closest to me growing up was my sister, who died at 19. She was an incredibly powerful girl, deeply committed to art and literature.

- Jim Harrison

Art, Committed, Died, Closest

You do manage a somewhat religious attitude toward your art. It is a calling rather than a job.

- Jim Harrison

Art, Religious, Toward, Manage

I'm a time person. It's the one discipline I manage.

- Jim Harrison

Time, Discipline, Person, Manage

I used to get criticized for putting food in novels.

- Jim Harrison

Used, Get, Putting, Novels

I'm afraid that eating in restaurants reflects one's experiences with movies, art galleries, novels, music - that is, characterized by mild amusement but with an overall feeling of stupidity and shame. Better to cook for yourself.

- Jim Harrison

Art, Shame, Characterized, Novels

I asked a French critic a couple of years ago why my books did so well in France. He said it was because in my novels people both act and think. I got a kick out of that.

- Jim Harrison

Why, Got, Couple, Novels

The idea is to eat well and not die from it - for the simple reason that that would be the end of your eating.

- Jim Harrison

Die, Reason, Would, Simple Reason

I've got a poem that's in a lot of international anthologies called 'After the Anonymous Swedish' and I thought, 'Well, I'm a Swede. I can make up a Swedish poem.' It turned out pretty good.

- Jim Harrison

Thought, Got, Turned, Anonymous

Age focuses you. You are much better concentrated. There's more time when you travel less, don't do book tours, avoid interviews or public appearances. You walk the dogs, fish, hunt, cook and write.

- Jim Harrison

Book, Interviews, Tours, Concentrated

The only advice I can give to aspiring writers is don't do it unless you're willing to give your whole life to it. Red wine and garlic also helps.

- Jim Harrison

Give, Garlic, Aspiring, Wine

I've never felt influenced by Ernest Hemingway though I suppose there is something inevitable there.

- Jim Harrison

Never, Inevitable, Though, None

Sometimes, I tell my wife I have to take a car trip and collect new memories - I like to drive around at absolute random for weeks on end through the United States and parts of Canada. Or else I feel trapped, like you feel when your life is completely planned for months in advance, and you think you're not getting enough oxygen.

- Jim Harrison

Through, United, Weeks, Oxygen

How is it macho that I like to hunt and fish? I've been doing it since I was four.

- Jim Harrison

How, Been, Hunt, Macho

Unlike a lot of writers, I don't have any craving to be understood.

- Jim Harrison

Craving, Lot, Unlike, Understood

Writing as a woman presents enormous problems but I have attempted it several times and haven't had many complaints.

- Jim Harrison

Woman, Complaints, Several, Attempted

I write novellas because I don't like loose sprawling prose.

- Jim Harrison

Like, Prose, I Write, Loose

There is a neurologist, a woman over at Harvard who wanted me to come talk to them, and in France I have a lot of readers in the sciences. I can't tell you why.

- Jim Harrison

Woman, Tell, Over, Harvard

Everybody has a gun in their car in Detroit.

- Jim Harrison

Car, Gun, Everybody, Detroit

Marriage is survived just on the basis of ordinary etiquette, day in and day out. Also cooking together helps a lot... I've seen all these marriages that failed. Those people are always hollering at each other. That doesn't work.

- Jim Harrison

Other, Seen, Hollering, Together

I don't think it matters how fast you write. It's how long you thought about it. I like to think of it as a well filling up. I think about it until the well is full, and then I let go.

- Jim Harrison

Thought, Think, I Think, Let Go

I don't feel tentative when I start to write. I've usually thought about a novel or novella for several years and created a lot of juice and density and energy by that time so by the time I get ready to go, I just let 'er fling, you know.

- Jim Harrison

Thought, About, By The Time, Novel

Given free rein, our imagination can get infinite.

- Jim Harrison

Get, Infinite, Given, Rein

If all I did was pretend I was Wilderness Jimmy, I would go stale. You know, I fish maybe 100 days of the year and bird-hunt, but if I didn't go to Paris once or twice a year, I'd be crazy.

- Jim Harrison

Go, Year, Maybe, Jimmy

We pretend that the brain is binary, like a computer. But it's not. It's completely holographic.

- Jim Harrison

Brain, Computer, Like, Binary

As a child, I was an obsessive reader, as was everybody in my family all winter long with my father. I think I was only 8 when I read Edward Gibbon's 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'

- Jim Harrison

Everybody, I Think, Reader, Empire

I think about the sentence a long time, and then I write it. I don't revise it once it's set down.

- Jim Harrison

Think, Sentence, I Think, Revise

I'm not rational enough to be a good journalist.

- Jim Harrison

Good, Enough, Journalist, Rational

My favorite thing is just walking in the woods. I can do it for days on end without tiring of it.

- Jim Harrison

Woods, Favorite Thing, Tiring

After a lifetime of world travel I've been fascinated that those in the third world don't have the same perception of reality that we do.

- Jim Harrison

Lifetime, Been, Third World, Perception

You can be in terrible shape, and if you take a three-hour walk through the forest and along the river, you're simply not the same as when you started out.

- Jim Harrison

Forest, Through, Shape, Terrible

The fact is, the media never gets off the interstate unless there's a major explosion.

- Jim Harrison

Fact, Never, Explosion, Interstate

I've always been intemperate in my affection for food.

- Jim Harrison

Food, Always, Been, Affection

Nothing in the world causes more problems than concepts of ethnic virtue. It's irrelevant.

- Jim Harrison

World, Ethnic, Irrelevant, Problems

Between the two dream coasts, we're just called flyover country... If you aren't known as an amorphous Eastern Seaboard writer, you're dismissed as a regional author.

- Jim Harrison

Country, Eastern, Regional, Dismissed

Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness. And they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy... or they become legend.

- Jim Harrison

Legend, Own, Some, Hear

I rarely read or buy a book because of a review.

- Jim Harrison

Book, Buy, Read, Review

Sometimes literary critics review the book they wanted you to write, not the book you wrote, and that's very irksome.

- Jim Harrison

Critics, Very, Wanted, Review

I don't want to go around like some kind of bleeding giant or whatever, or thinking I'm a big deal, because it doesn't help you do your work. I think people like Hemingway got into an awful lot of trouble that way.

- Jim Harrison

Big, Some, Deal, Hemingway

I work every morning, all morning, sometimes in the afternoons. Then sometimes I hunt in the afternoons - quail, doves, grouse up north - but just to stay alive, because writers die from their lifestyle but also from their lack of movement.

- Jim Harrison

Die, Sometimes, Alive, Lifestyle

There's something frightening about finding a woman who would take your heart.

- Jim Harrison

Woman, Take, Would, Frightening

I see more genuine sociability between the races in Mississippi than I see in Michigan. No question.

- Jim Harrison

Question, More, No Question, Mississippi

I should add that I very much enjoy certain cities especially Paris, New York and Chicago.

- Jim Harrison

New, Add, Very, Chicago

I enjoy about 1 out of 100 movies, it's about the same proportion to books published that I care to read.

- Jim Harrison

About, Read, Proportion, Published

I've never been a true fan of the short story and have only published a single example of my own.

- Jim Harrison

Own, My Own, Been, Published

Riesling? It smells like an intensive care ward.

- Jim Harrison

Like, Smells, Intensive, Ward

I used to have this illusion that time and remote areas prepare you for the world. Our moms used to think that kind of thing. Well, it doesn't prepare you for the world at all!

- Jim Harrison

Think, Kind, Prepare, Moms

So when I made some money, I didn't have any idea how one handled such a situation because no one in our family ever had any money.

- Jim Harrison

Some, Idea, Made, Situation

I couldn't read a screenplay without puking.

- Jim Harrison

Without, Read, Screenplay

I got $30 from Nation magazine for a poem and $500 for my first book of poems.

- Jim Harrison

Nation, Poem, Poems, Magazine

I can't stand the short story form, which, after all, is a magazine form.

- Jim Harrison

Short, Which, Form, Magazine

Fiction writers tend to err either making people more than they are or less than they are. I'd rather err on the side of the former.

- Jim Harrison

Making, Side, Err, Former

I couldn't run a tight schedule, and if you're any good at teaching, you get sucked dry because you like your students and you're trying to help them, but you don't have any time left to write yourself.

- Jim Harrison

Run, Students, Teaching, Sucked

The only durable sense of success is if you've followed your calling.

- Jim Harrison

Success, Success Is, Durable, Calling

Because most writers have totally unrealistic concepts of how publishing works.

- Jim Harrison

How, Most, Works, Publishing

If I can't be fishing or hunting, I want to be in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

- Jim Harrison

Art, Fishing, New, Museum

Success and money can really be quite blinding.

- Jim Harrison

Success, Money, Quite, Blinding

You can't be unhappy in the middle of a big, beautiful river.

- Jim Harrison

Beautiful, Unhappy, Big, River

Other than fishing and a little bird-hunting, all I do is write.

- Jim Harrison

Other, Write, Than, Fishing

Michigan is two radically different places - the North and the South which makes for good drama and contrast.

- Jim Harrison

Which, Different Places, Radically

When I write, I don't like to be around any humans.

- Jim Harrison

Like, Write, I Write, Humans

Writers can write outside their ethnicity or sex depending how open and vulnerable they wish to be.

- Jim Harrison

Wish, How, Ethnicity, Vulnerable

I wrote 'Legends of the Fall' in nine days, but I had been thinking about it for a few years.

- Jim Harrison

Been, Legends, Nine, Few

Naturally we would prefer seven epiphanies a day and an earth not so apparently devoid of angels.

- Jim Harrison

Naturally, Would, Prefer, Angels

I'm actually forced to write about Michigan because as a native of that state it's the place I know best.

- Jim Harrison

Michigan, About, Forced, Native

Either you can do what others want, or you can do what you want to do. That's an easy call.

- Jim Harrison

Want, Call, Either, Easy

What moves me most is style: the quality of the writing rather than the story being told.

- Jim Harrison

Moves, Rather, Most, Quality

Yeah, but now suddenly - you know, universities are notoriously market oriented, too.

- Jim Harrison

Market, Universities, Too, Suddenly

I don't trust anybody that doesn't do good work. I don't give them any credibility. If they can't write, why should I believe anything they have to say?

- Jim Harrison

Trust, Give, Anybody, Good Work

I grew up in an agricultural family, and I never distanced myself from where the food comes from. I think it's quite natural.

- Jim Harrison

Think, Natural, I Think, Agricultural

I won't talk or deal with a young writer unless I sense he has utterly given his life over to it. It's a waste of my time. If they don't feel 'called' - why in God's name would you do this?

- Jim Harrison

Young, Feel, Deal, My Time

I thought, frankly, that it would be more pleasant to write a memoir than it was.

- Jim Harrison

Thought, Frankly, Would, Memoir

We are supposed to write poetry to keep the gods alive.

- Jim Harrison

Alive, Keep, Gods, Supposed

Poetry, at its best, is the language your soul would speak if you could teach your soul to speak.

- Jim Harrison

Soul, Could, Would, Speak

I like grit. I like love and death. I'm tired of irony.

- Jim Harrison

Love, Death, Like, Irony

I've always been very much attracted to a character that's actually free.

- Jim Harrison

Always, Very, Actually, Attracted

We are all naturally xenophobic.

- Jim Harrison

Xenophobic, Naturally

I don't see gender as the most significant fact of human existence.

- Jim Harrison

Fact, See, Most, Existence

I can write anywhere.

- Jim Harrison

I Can, Write, Anywhere

Short things are short all over and long things are long all over.

- Jim Harrison

Long, Over, Things, Short

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