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To all librarians everywhere, God bless you.
David Morrell / Novelist
God Bless
God Bless You
Librarian
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In my novel, 'First Blood,' Rambo died. In the films, he lives.
David Morrell / Novelist
Blood
Died
Novel
Films
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People who know various movie versions don't really know the story.
David Morrell / Novelist
Knows
People
Stories
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A thriller becomes great when it carries a feeling of reality and truth.
David Morrell / Novelist
Feelings
Reality
Thrillers
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As long as thriller authors teach us about our world, they'll be relevant.
David Morrell / Novelist
Long
Our World
Thrillers
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There are no inferior types of fiction, only inferior practitioners of them.
David Morrell / Novelist
Fiction
Inferiors
Type
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The flaw of an amateur is to assume what's in our head is what's on the page.
David Morrell / Novelist
Amateur
Assume
Flaw
Page
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One generation's idea of fast pace might be different from a later generation's.
David Morrell / Novelist
Different
Generations
Ideas
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" ... What if?" Through the alchemy of those two words, something new comes into the world.
David Morrell / Novelist
Two
What If
World
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When I started 'First Blood,' back in 1968, I was deeply influenced by Geoffrey Household's 'Rogue Male.'
David Morrell / Novelist
Male
Deeply
Geoffrey
Influenced
Rogue
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When I teach writing, I have a mantra: Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.
David Morrell / Novelist
Firsts
Teach
Writing
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When I teach writing, I have a mantra: 'Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.'
David Morrell / Novelist
Second Rate
Version
First-Rate
Mantra
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Your obligation as writers is to distinguish yourself. … The ultimate result should be a book that you write that no one else could have written.
David Morrell / Novelist
Book
Results
Writing
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His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew, standing by the pump of a gas station at the outskirts of Madison, Kentucky.
David Morrell / Novelist
Kids
Kentucky
Military
Names
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A thriller must be thrilling. A mystery may or may not be a thriller depending on how much breathless emotion it has, as opposed to cerebral calculation.
David Morrell / Novelist
Emotion
May
Mystery
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At their best, thrillers not only entertain. Ideally they also reflect the society in which they are set, analyzing our fears and how we perceive the world.
David Morrell / Novelist
Analyzing
Thrillers
World
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Remember that just because major publishing is having trouble, that doesn't mean people have stopped reading books. Printed books won't go away, but ebooks won't go away, either.
David Morrell / Novelist
Mean People
Printed
Publishing
Reading Books
Go Away
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If you chase the market, it's not going to come to you. You have to have faith in yourself. I think one of the differences in what I call 'civilians' and 'authors' is that we have an antenna hat buzzing all the time.
David Morrell / Novelist
Antenna
Civilians
Differences
Authors
Buzzing
Chase
Hat
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Writers need to be tough. This is not for the weak of will. And we have to realize that, yeah, it's never good enough. It's not like fixing a car where it's precise and we know what the end result will be definitively.
David Morrell / Novelist
Fixing
Precise
Weak
End Result
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As much as I like it when a book I'm writing speeds along, the downside can be that an author becomes too eager to finish and rushes the end. The end is even more important than the first page, and rushing can damage it.
David Morrell / Novelist
Book
Rushing
Writing
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Before I start a project, I always ask myself the following question. Why is this book worth a year of my life? There needs to be something about the theme, the technique, or the research that makes the time spent on it worthwhile.
David Morrell / Novelist
Book
Technique
Years
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My world view is that it can all go to hell in an instant, and you have to be ready for it. That's pretty much the central theme running through my work. It's about people's awareness of how uncertain life can be and their trying to guard against that.
David Morrell / Novelist
Go To Hell
Instant
Ready
Theme
Uncertain
World View
Life Work World
Central
Guard
View
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You have to follow your own voice. You have to be yourself when you write. In effect, you have to announce, 'This is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me. I'm doing the best I can - buy me or not - but this is who I am as a writer.
David Morrell / Novelist
Being Yourself
Who I Am
Writing
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Anybody who sits down to write, and they think 'thriller,' maybe shouldn't be thinking that way. Maybe we should be thinking 'novel,' maybe 'thriller' way in the background, but that these are real people to whom things are happening. It just happens to be a hell of an exciting story.
David Morrell / Novelist
Background
Real People
Thriller
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Some people might be surprised that 'Rambo's creator has a doctorate in American literature. One of my influences is Henry James, whose major theme is awareness. Whether I'm writing about military personnel, law enforcement, or De Quincey, the persistent theme is paying attention in a hostile world.
David Morrell / Novelist
American Literature
Creator
Enforcement
Hostile
Law Enforcement
Military Personnel
Personnel
Doctorate
Influences
James
Paying
Surprised
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My son died from cancer. My granddaughter died from cancer. I have a lot of reasons to think that reality is not a friendly neighborhood. And the stories that I tell distract me, and if I do the job right, they distract people from things that are happening to them that they wish had never happened.
David Morrell / Novelist
Cancer
Died
Friendly
Granddaughter
Neighborhood
Reality Me People
Distract
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I use these senses - touch, sight, feel and smell - as triggers that invite readers or propel them into the scene. The trick is not to make it obvious. I've written an entire chapter about this in my book, 'The Successful Novelist.' I've lectured about it extensively, but have yet to see many people pick up on it.
David Morrell / Novelist
Obvious
Scene
Senses
Sight
Smell
Successful
People Feel See
Touch
Chapter
Entire
Trick
Invite
Novelist
Pick
Propel
Readers
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One of the advantages of having gone to Penn State was having had a scholar for a mentor - Philip Young. Also, a professional writer named Philip Klass taught there. He was a science fiction writer whose pseudonym was William Tenn. As a professional writer, he brought wisdom to teaching because he'd done it for a living.
David Morrell / Novelist
Penn State
Philip
Scholar
Advantages
Named
Fiction Writer
William
Penn
Professional Writer
Pseudonym
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I have a graduate degree from Penn State. I studied at Penn State under a noted Hemingway scholar, Philip Young. I had an interest in thrillers, and it occurred to me that Hemingway wrote many action scenes: the war scenes in 'A Farewell to Arms' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' come to mind. But the scenes don't feel pulpy.
David Morrell / Novelist
War
Action
Arms
Farewell
Mind
Penn State
Philip
Scholar
Thrillers
Young
Studied
Bell
Degree
Graduate
Graduate Degree
Hemingway
Noted
Occurred
Penn
Whom
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