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" I watched 'Kojak' religiously with my father. It was a great bonding time. He loved shows where the stakes were high. Life and death, justice prevailing, things like that. I think that helped set me on the path to what I do now. "

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" I realize now I could have gotten a whole book out of that and so I think that was a big mistake. But the truth is you write in the moment and with your head down and there is no way back then that I could have conceived of Harry having the longevity that he has had. "

Michael Connelly

Mistake

Book

Moment

" It wasn't a decision to become a writer. I wanted to become a writer of crime fiction. I was very specific. "

" In 1995, I sold the rights to Harry Bosch to Paramount. They had several screenplays written, but a movie never happened. Harry Bosch went on the shelf, and I had to wait 15 years to get him back. "

" I went into journalism to learn the craft of writing and to get close to the world I wanted to write about - police and criminals, the criminal justice system. "

" Every time I visit Brisbane, I think, 'This is my childhood.' "

" L.A. is a long shot city, and those who make that shot - you can tell. You can see very clearly who's made it and who hasn't. "

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

" I think I would spend the first 30 weeks not writing, just clearing my head and seeing parts of the world I haven't seen and going back to places I have seen and love. "

" The fulfillment I get from a good day of writing is addictive and will always bring me back the next day. "

Michael Connelly

Good Day

Writing

" As far as characters in fiction that I really admire - it's pretty strong to say you would wish that you had created another character - but I'll throw out Will Graham, the protagonist in 'Red Dragon,' a book I've read several times. "

" I can't say I'm an expert on public transport. "

" My grandparents were all born in the U.S., but their parents came from Ireland. "

" Eight to ten years in a patrol car? I didn't have that in me. "

Michael Connelly

Eight

Car

" I've always thought of L.A. as the modern version of 'The Garden of Earthly Delights.' "

" I don't miss being a reporter as a job, but I do miss the everyday interaction with the front line of law enforcement. I still have a cadre of cops who keep me up to date, but I don't have the access I used to. "

Michael Connelly

Law Enforcement

Job

" I'm not Mr. Hollywood. I'm a book writer. "

" That's what I like most about writing fiction over journalism: the easy metaphors! "

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

" 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 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. "

" 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

" 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

" Many writers learned their craft and work ethic at a newspaper. I benefited from that. "

" It's about being fair. It's about Black Lives Matter. Yes, they matter. Everybody counts or nobody counts, and I think if more cops had the philosophy of Harry Bosch, we'd have less of these situations happening. "

" 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 got lucky, and the first book, 'The Black Echo,' got published. "

" With age comes a greater understanding and a greater worldview. "

" Now I'm writing about contemporary Los Angeles from memory. My process was to hang out, observe, research what I was writing about, and almost immediately go back to my office and write those sections. So it was a very close transfer between observation and writing. "

" My experience as a newspaper reporter was invaluable in terms of getting me to the kind of writing I do now. It gave me a work ethic of writing every day and pushing through difficult creative times. I mean, there's no writer's block allowed in a newsroom. "

" I learned to write crime novels by reading people I hoped to emulate: people like James Lee Burke, Lawrence Block, Joseph Wambaugh, and Sue Grafton. "

Michael Connelly

People

Write