We all now tell stories by cutting from one dramatic scene to the next, whereas Victorian novelists felt free to write long passages of undramatic summary.
One of the hardest things for me, now that I’m famous, is finding people who can read my stuff and give me an honest critique.
I enjoy learning technical details.
World War II is the greatest drama in human history, the biggest war ever and a true battle of good and evil. I imagine writers will continue to get stories from it, and readers will continue to love them, for many more years.
It was the most romantic plane ever made.
Why did people manufacture trouble when there was already so much of it in the world?
It was an odd thing to do, to stand in a street in the hope of seeing someone who hardly knew him, but he did not want to move.
The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.
He had been granted his life’s wish-but conditionally.
To someone standing in the nave, looking down the length of the church toward the east, the round window would seem like a huge sun exploding into innumerable shards of gorgeous color.
Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative.
I wanted to be some kind of captain of industry. Then I wanted to be in advertising, and then I wanted to be a newspaper reporter.
Culture clash is terrific drama.
An awful lot of thriller writers write women rather badly. So just doing it OK gets a lot of credit.
After a certain point, most people, including editors, will tell you everything you do is great.
In both cases, weakness and scruples had defeated strength and ruthlessness.
What news? There’s nothing to tell. I’m a nun.
The CIA’s research program is described in a book called The Search for the Manchurian Candidate.
Why was it, Lloyd wondered, that the people who wanted to destroy everything good about their country were the quickest to wave the national flag?
Man who betrayed you once would betray you twice.