Quote

There seem to be two ways of generating interest from the reader: withholding information or by telling the reader on the first page exactly what's going to happen.

Christopher Bollen

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Christopher Bollen
Age: 48
Born: 1975
Born: November 26
Journalist
Novelist
Cincinnati
Ohio
Going
Exactly
Reader
Seem
Information
Ways
Withholding
Happen
Generating
Interest
Page
First
Telling

More quotes by Christopher Bollen

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There's a structure to a detective story that I can easily understand. I understand playing that particular game. It's like solving a puzzle. Or creating a puzzle.
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My parents were great parents, but for some bizarre reason they allowed me to watch whatever I wanted on TV, we had cable. And I constantly watched horror movies.
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One day I want to write a full-on horror book.
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I had lived in New York since 1996, sometimes in the worst neighborhoods, without even locking my door half the time.
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It's always fun to welcome new people into your life. When dating anyone or becoming friends with anyone who has a different profession, a different life, it opens doors. All my friends here do such different creative things. It's so awesome.
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An album for me as a teenager in the '70s was a fully formed concept. It was a body of work from an artist I liked or trusted or who excited me. Maybe one of the songs is really poppy and you listen to it on the radio as a hit single and then more of the world is about to find out about this artist by buying the record.
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Looking back, [R.E.M.]videos, by in large, have always been art films. I'm thinking of Losing My Religion. That's a landmark piece.
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Safety, reputation, their lives, their friends, and their world. Writers typically try to avoid that because it's not expedient.
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Secrets are never secure because they are always at risk of being found out.
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My dad liked more macho adventure books like Shogun or spy novels. My mother reads murder mysteries. In fact, so does her mother, my grandma. That's where I trace the familial line of murder mystery obsession.
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I'm convinced I was the only kid ever who had a Death on the Nile [1978] movie poster and a Murder on the Orient Express [1974] movie poster on his bedroom walls.
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It's hard for me to figure out where I want to be. But it's definitely in New York. I feel like New York throws different challenges at you and you can be more creative.
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I've never had a mentor. I've always wanted one. I'm actually really disappointed that nobody took my under their wing.
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I smoke cigarettes when I write, which is disgusting, but it really helps me.
Christopher Bollen
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I definitely don't take any of intrusions in my private life personally. You learn how to have a sense of humor pretty quickly. I honestly don't keep up on it unless it's something that would hurt someone else. I can take care of myself, that's not the problem. But it's just not fair to bring anyone else into the picture.
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Why I love chess and tennis - the volleying aspect, and the fact that your competitors' reactions and motivations and bluffs come into the game itself.
Christopher Bollen
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Every time I try to write on vacation, I fail miserably.
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It's just as political, what you do in the bedroom is just as political as what you do in public.
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The death drive is parasitic. It runs off of other drives, leeching off of them.
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I had been going out to Orient for several years.
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