I think books with weak or translucent plots can survive if the character being drawn along the path is rich, interesting and multi-faceted. The opposite is not true.
I think there’s a general misconception that anything written quickly lacks quality, and I don’t believe that.
I saw a sneak preview of Jack Reacher and give two thumbs up to Tom Cruise. He did a great job with the role.
Ingeniously plotted and executed, Print the Legend is an epic masterpiece from Craig McDonald. Beginning to end, I was riveted by this story of character, history and intrigue.
We’re all seeking order. We’re all seeking control.
In a daydream sort of way, I think it would be pretty cool to direct a movie. But I have been on movie and TV sets and know it is hard work. I like directing it in my mind. It is easier.
To write more from memory and to be more creative – I think – because I am still writing about Los Angeles but I can’t walk out my door and immediately drive to places I am writing about. So I think it has been a very good change for me after 11 books to start writing this way.
Deep in my heart it still feels like I’m a journalist even though I haven’t worked for a paper and carried a press pass for 14 years.
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that when you look into the darkness of the abyss the abyss looks into you. Probably no other line or thought more inspires or informs my work.
A newspaper is the center of a community, it’s one of the tent poles of the community, and that’s not going to be replaced by Web sites and blogs.
There is a means to every end. A root to any cause. Sometimes the root is more evil than any cause, though it’s the cause that is usually most vilified.
It’s lucky no one else knows what our most secret thoughts are. We’d all be seen for the cunning, self-aggrandizing fools we are.
It’s only a wonderful world if you can make it that way. There are no street signs pointing to Paradise Road.
There is nothing like the start of a season, before all the one-run losses, pitching breakdowns and missed opportunities. Before reality sets in.
You can fall in love and make love many times but there is only one bullet with your name etched on the side. And if you are lucky enough to be shot with that bullet then the wound never heals.
I don’t think anyone will believe me, but I’ve never been pressured by a publisher to churn out a book.
I love movies. Movies have influenced me as a writer.
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.
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 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.
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.