Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I grew up in Birmingham, where they made useful things and made them well. "

Related Quotes:

" The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end. "

" I have the 'thing' worked out - the trick or the surprise or the pivotal fact. Then I just start somewhere and let the story work itself out. "

" L.A. has a fantastic car scene and because the climate is so gentle, cars can last forever. "

" I don't know what the secret is when I am writing it - it really is a surprise to me. "

" I write in the afternoon, from about 12 until 6 or 7. I use an upstairs room as my office. Once I get going I keep at it, and it usually takes about six months from the first blank screen until 'The End.' "

" I need a stimulating environment to write because my books are driven at 100 miles per hour at a time. "

" I like food, like any other guy, but it is not the main thing in my life. I can do without it. "

" Practically any Western has a homesteader in trouble, and a mysterious rider shows up off the range, solves the problem over two or three days, and then rides off into the sunset. "

" British crime stories tend to be very internal, psychological, claustrophobic, very limited in terms of geography. "

" I had been coming to America very frequently for many, many years, so I had plenty of exposure - and maybe the best kind of exposure, because I think first impressions are very important. Maybe I notice stuff that is just subliminal to people who live here all the time. "

" I was in television drama, which is a first cousin to the movies, and I trust myself to make the right decisions. "

" I love Italian food but that's too generic a term for what's available now: you have to narrow it down to Tuscan, Sicilian, and so on. "

" I don't need validation, recognition or praise. What I need are facts and the facts are that one of my books gets sold, somewhere in the world, every second. "

" The thriller is not a recent invention. It probably goes back to the dawn of storytelling. "

" I have a kind of old-fashioned, artisan approach. "

" You mustn't fall in love with your own hero. "

" I had a brief theater background and loved the backstage world there's more backstage work in television, so I saw a job advertised and applied, and got it. That was back in 1977, when getting jobs was easy. "

" Yeah, I am pretty sure of myself. "

" I wanted readers to be genuinely unsure as to whether she's telling the truth or lying. It meant making her partly sympathetic, and partly unsympathetic, which wasn't easy. "

" So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an idiot to be burnt-out in this job. "

" I think my books come out very visual, which is an obvious consequence. "

" I have three desks. One empty for paperwork, one for the internet and email, and one for the writing computer. "

" I do a little fact checking now and then. Other than that its impact is simply that email has revolutionized communication for me, and my website has built up a community of readers, which is a lot of fun. "

" I'm not really into gourmet food; I'm the kind of guy who just stops by a place that looks good rather than heading for the restaurant of the moment. "

" There is nothing wrong with just telling the story. "

" Most actors are small, anyway - at least compared to me. "

" My mother still calls me Jim and that is about it. Everyone else calls me Lee. My wife calls me whatever. "

" I love visiting LA. It's an endlessly fascinating city, and is, of course, America's entertainment capital. Each time I go, I fall in love with it all over again. That said, it's not the sort of place I'd want to live. "

" The key to thrillers is vicarious pleasure. "

" She's a reflection of my fascination with the diversity of America she's totally normal in New York, but a freak in Texas. There are dozens of such clashes in America. "