Lee Child

“I love Italian food but that's too generic a term for what's available now: you have to narrow it down to Tuscan, Sicilian, and so on.”

“It's a tough case and the first time Reacher needs to recruit somebody to help him out. He uses a woman he knew in the army she's a fascinating character.”

“I felt alienated by the experience and decided to stay away from corporate employment.”

“I don't need validation, recognition or praise. What I need are facts and the facts are that one of my books gets sold, somewhere in the world, every second.”

“No cop on earth would call his badge a government identification document. Cops don’t work for the government. Not in their minds. They work for their department. For each other. For the whole worldwide brotherhood. For the city, just maybe, at the very best. But not the government. They hate the government. The government is their worst enemy, at every level. National, county, local, no one understands cops and everyone makes their lives more and more miserable with an endless stream of bullshit. A cop wouldn’t use the word.”

“I was in television drama, which is a first cousin to the movies, and I trust myself to make the right decisions.”

“Yeah, I am pretty sure of myself.”

“I write in the afternoon, from about 12 until 6 or 7. I use an upstairs room as my office. Once I get going I keep at it, and it usually takes about six months from the first blank screen until 'The End.'”

“You mustn't fall in love with your own hero.”

“A calm environment is for after I finish work.”

“For me the end of a book is just as exciting as it is for a reader.”

“What's the best place to hide a car? In an airport long-term lot. Like where's the best place to hide a grain of sand? On the beach”

“So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an idiot to be burnt-out in this job.”

“He liked the electric darkness and the hot dirty air and the blasts of noise and traffic and the manic barking sirens and the crush of people. It helped a lonely man feel connected and isolated both at the same time.”

“I'm not afraid of death. Death's afraid of me.”

“I like food, like any other guy, but it is not the main thing in my life. I can do without it.”

“You know, women are as promiscuous as men and yet, of course, people are inhibited from having an affair or a relationship because the real-world consequences are a drag.”

“For men, as they get bogged down with responsibilities, commitments, bureaucracy, it is a fantasy just to think of shedding everything literally, walking away with nothing at all, and just hitting the road.”

“I had been coming to America very frequently for many, many years, so I had plenty of exposure - and maybe the best kind of exposure, because I think first impressions are very important. Maybe I notice stuff that is just subliminal to people who live here all the time.”

“I have three desks. One empty for paperwork, one for the internet and email, and one for the writing computer.”