Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I view people two ways. They're either eye-for-an-eye people or they are turn-the-cheek people.
No Way Back is my kind of novel - a tough, taut thriller - Mofina knows the world he writes about.
I trust the readers to build their own visual images. To me, that's part of the wonder of reading.
When I lived in L.A. full time, I moved often - fourteen different neighbourhoods in sixteen years.
In the TV world, we are seeing a lot more power going to the writer. I sense it is a writer's medium.
I don't think anyone will believe me, but I've never been pressured by a publisher to churn out a book.
Momentum was momentum, whether you found it in music or on the street or in the beat of your own heart.
I'd be lying if I said the success means nothing to me. It does. I enjoy it and live a pretty great life.
The fulfillment I get from a good day of writing is addictive and will always bring me back the next day.
If the system turns away from the abuses inflicted on the guilty, then who can be next but the innocents?
The LAPD, like most police departments, is a male-dominated bureaucracy. A woman faces a lot of pushback.
It wasn't a decision to become a writer. I wanted to become a writer of crime fiction. I was very specific.
I saw a sneak preview of Jack Reacher and give two thumbs up to Tom Cruise. He did a great job with the role.
The writing ethic was influenced - when you have to write every day, there's no such thing as writer's block.
It's only a wonderful world if you can make it that way. There are no street signs pointing to Paradise Road.
I think there's a general misconception that anything written quickly lacks quality, and I don't believe that.
Don't go growing a conscience on me," I said. "I've been down that road. It doesn't lead you to anything good.
I'd seen Titus Welliver in a few shows and felt he had some inner demons in his portrayals, as does Harry Bosch.
She refused to accept the simple truism that the better you were, the bigger threat you were to those at the top.
My whole reputation and creative thought as a novelist is really wrapped around Harry Bosch, so he's near and dear.
I've learned over the years that sometimes if you ask the same question more than once you get different responses.
When I am so intensely involved with writing my books, I don't like to reread them. I feel like that story is done.
The best crime novels are not about how a detective works on a case; they are about how a case works on a detective.
When I was at a newspaper, I knew what an opportunity that was, and I religiously protected my time on the cop beat.
I've crossed the Mexican border and gone to Tijuana a few times over the years, but I've never felt comfortable there.
That's the irony in the work: the best stories are the worst things that happen. My best times were somebody else's worst.
My entire career writing novels was wrapped up around Harry Bosch. This character was too important to me to just hand off.
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 feel I'm functioning at some level as a journalist because even though I write fiction, I'm trying to get the world accurate.
The three books I've written in Florida about L.A. are my best takes on the physicality of the city, as far as description goes.
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.
I have high hopes for Renee Ballard's literary life, and it can't start out better than the top of 'USA TODAY''s best-seller list.
Keeping your head down and just writing is only part of the equation, so I surround myself with smart people to help sell my books.
I'm a disciple of Raymond Chandler, who said in his essays that there's a quality of redemption in anything that can be called art.
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.
As a bassist he could never really be a sideman. He was always the anchor. He drove the beat. even if it was behind Miles Davis'a horn.
I was a police reporter, so I got into the worlds that I write about, and I think many of the details in my books come from those days.
The TV audience is way bigger than a book audience, and no matter what I do, I'm always thinking if this will help people read my books.
...it is how a person goes about quenching his desires or living with them unrequited that the readers get a glimpse of his true character.
I could not have been happier with 'The Lincoln Lawyer.' They got the essence, and the casting, starting with McConaughey, was just perfect.
As a former reporter, I wrote 'The Scarecrow' quickly - I didn't have to think about what the character would do the way I do with Harry Bosch.
There is nothing like the start of a season, before all the one-run losses, pitching breakdowns and missed opportunities. Before reality sets in.
I've sold 11 of my books to Hollywood. There are all kinds of my books on shelves in Hollywood because the scripts didn't capture the characters.
When you're a detective on the midnight shift, you don't have a specialty: you roll on any time they need a detective, whether it's big or small.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When you're working on a novel, you never think about how much it would cost to shoot one of your scenes. But that's a huge consideration in film and TV.
A good day to me is writing from 6 A.M. 'til noon with a break to take my daughter to school. After lunch, if I still feel the momentum, I'll hit it again.