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" I admit my reading time is limited because I can write in the situations and places where people usually read. But reading is the fuel - it's inspiring - so I try to keep the tank full. What happens most of the time is I binge read. I will put aside a day or two to do nothing but read. "

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" I get into this unfortunate thing when I'm touring for my books. I was in Spain, and the media asked me, 'Who's your favorite Spanish mystery writer?' I'm totally flat-footed. I feel that I'm under-read when it comes to foreign writers. "

Michael Connelly

Spain

Books

Media

" When I write about Mickey Haller as the Lincoln lawyer, I totally see Matthew McConaughey because he took that character when that character was still fairly new to me - only two or three years old - when I knew McConaughey was going to play him. He's also the same age, the right age, in comparison to the book. "

Michael Connelly

Book

Character

" I write puzzles and mysteries. Nothing too highfalutin. "

" My literary heroes all wrote about L.A.: Joseph Wambaugh, Ross Macdonald, and Raymond Chandler were the three writers that made me want to be a writer. "

" I chose deliberately for Harry Bosch to age chronologically with the books. "

" When I lived in L.A. full time, I moved often - fourteen different neighbourhoods in sixteen years. "

" I don't think anyone will believe me, but I've never been pressured by a publisher to churn out a book. "

" There are nineteen Harry Bosch books, and someone told me if you add up the descriptions of Harry from all of them, it would come to less than three pages. He's very elliptically described over the two decades during which the novels occur. I did that by intention. "

Michael Connelly

Two

Intention

" I wanted to learn about the worlds I wanted to write about in fiction. "

" I feel I'm functioning at some level as a journalist because even though I write fiction, I'm trying to get the world accurate. "

" When I was in college, there were dollar movie nights. I went to see 'The Long Goodbye,' which was based on one of Chandler's books but was contemporary and set in Los Angeles in 1973. I loved the movie, which motivated me to read the book. "

" That's the irony in the work: the best stories are the worst things that happen. My best times were somebody else's worst. "

" As a reporter, you develop an ear for dialogue because it's your job to capture it accurately. "

" What is overriding that and most important is that readers generally are interested in a good character. They might be more comfortable with Harry because they think they know him, but they always seem willing to give somebody new a chance. "

" I'm going to have to be impressed and feel confident in the people I'm handing a book to - or I'm not going to do it. Once you hand it to them, you're out. You have no control over it. "

" I think there's a general misconception that anything written quickly lacks quality, and I don't believe that. "

" The criminal defense attorney is misunderstood if not despised by most of society. It doesn't matter if we believe in our adversarial system and the ideal that everyone charged with a crime is entitled to a vigorous defense. Ideals give away to reality - defense lawyers working loopholes and angles to get their clients off. "

" I used to tape over the top corner of my computer screen so I couldn't see what time it was. I like the idea that I'm just with the words and not knowing what's going on with the world, when it's lunch or dinner. "

" I connect to the tradition of Irish storytelling. And I think there is something - I can't put my finger on it - something genetic there. Maybe just a need to tell stories. "

" I've sold 11 of my books to Hollywood. There are all kinds of my books on shelves in Hollywood because the scripts didn't capture the characters. "

" Writing a screenplay is so spare, it kind of reminded me that I really should celebrate what I can do in a book, which is description: for example, places, people, locations. "

" I wrote my first real murder story as a journalist for the Daytona Beach News Journal in 1980. It was about a body found in the woods. Later, the murder was linked to a serial killer who was later caught and executed for his crimes. "

" I'd be lying if I said the success means nothing to me. It does. I enjoy it and live a pretty great life. "

" This next to never happens, but if I had time to sit on a beach and read, I wouldn't read a cozy. But I've read cozies. That's how I got interested in crime fiction: because my mother was a soft-boiled reader. "

" I think the only boundaries are individual and personal. A writer should be free to write about anything he or she wants to, including the twin towers. I have made small references to 9/11 in my past two books. "

" I've crossed the Mexican border and gone to Tijuana a few times over the years, but I've never felt comfortable there. "

" A movie is like a city. There's, like, 150 people working, and it's all because of something that came out of your head. "

Michael Connelly

City

Head

" I write my books never thinking of an actor. "

" I not only read Raymond Chandler but read all the crime fiction classics. I was hooked. "

" What brought me to the table was Raymond Chandler and, to a lesser degree, Ross Macdonald and Dashiell Hammett. I was basically inspired to want to write like the classic private-eye writers. "