The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.
Books have that strange quality, that being of the frailest and tenderest matter, they outlast brass, iron and marble.
The function of a book is to provide a reading experience.
There's always been a need for horror fiction, though--ghost stories have been a staple of every human society since the beginning of recorded literature--and while commercially the field may have its ups and downs, it will never go away. Hell, look at the Bible: gods, devils, ghosts, witches, giants, resurrections. That's one big horror story. And it's the most popular book on the planet.
I love going to writers' colonies in pastoral settings where there's nothing to do, but either walk around or read a book or work on your book.
Somehow Annie Flanders from the SoHo News heard I was doing pictures and was headed to Paris. She saw my worked, liked it, and asked me to take pictures for her paper while I was there, but told me I would first have to buy a real camera - 35-millimeter. I got a little book that taught me how to load film. I read it on the flight to Paris. Hours later, I found myself at the top of the Eiffel Tower with Yves Saint Laurent and Andy Warhol. It's all been downhill since then.
There are as many strata at different levels of life as there are leaves in a book. When on the higher levels we can remember the lower levels, but when on the lower we cannot remember the higher.
Your criticism sounds to me as if you have read too many critical books and are too smart in an artificial, destructive, and very limited way.
I said that he was my superior in observation and deduction. If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an armchair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived. But he has no ambition and no energy. He will not even go out of his way to verify his own solutions, and would rather be considered wrong than take the trouble to prove himself right.
When you read the sacred Scriptures, or any other book, never think how you read, but what you read.
I don't want to dis anybody, but someone like Robert Parker. I first read a Spenser book maybe 20 years ago and then read every one that came out. I did that with Tony Hillerman too.
I’m interested in so many different things and I’d like to cover a lot of territory. I’m trying to see my show as the Sunday Times. You have the Arts & Leisure section, you have the Op-Ed page, you have the Book Review. . . even the Style section has those wonderful essays about relationships.
You could be writing the book that changes your life.
I read a lot of science books - I love cosmology, quantum theory, particle physics. So my idea of a great read would probably put you directly into a coma.
Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.
To me, the point of a novel is to take you to a still place. You can multitask with a lot of things, but you can’t really multitask reading a book.
I give off rather mixed messages about the law. On the one hand, I can honestly say I don't miss working in a law office. On the other hand I do enjoy watching the law and while the profession may have its problems, I have sold zillions of books out of magnifying them.
A preface is a species of literary luxury, where an author, like a lover, is privileged to be egotistical.
When you get the ideas, that's a thrill; when you're writing the book and it's corning out well, that's a thrill; when you finish it and other people read it, that's a thrill. There are going to be reviews, of course; not everyone's going to love it. You feel sort of naked and vulnerable in a way. That's just a minor part of the process, really. If you can't take that part, you shouldn't be in the business. But there are so many joys to writing.
You can’t know a book until you come to the end of it, and then all the rest must be modified to fit that.
