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Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.

Thomas Perry

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Thomas Perry
Age: 72 †
Born: 1737
Born: January 29
Died: 1809
Died: June 8
Entrepreneur
Journalist
Musician
Opinion Journalist
Philosopher
Politician
Prosaist
Writer
Thetford
Norfolk
Pretty
Illustrate
Reading
Delayed
Experience
Chastity
Character
Gratification
Hard
Dull
Work
Patience
Characters
Novel

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Yes, in my books I do edit myself to keep from becoming the Village Explainer.
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What I look for in any character, good or bad, is whether I can hear him speak. If I can imagine him that clearly, then I can write about him.
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It's important, I think, for a writer of fiction to maintain an awareness of the pace and shape of the book as he's writing it. That is, he should be making an object, not chattering.
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I do like to explore evil characters in my books.
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If I don't have a project going, I sit down and begin to write something - a character sketch, a monologue, a description of some sight, or even just a list of ideas.
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I don't have dry seasons, because I don't allow them.
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I don't think the problem is that people don't read enough mystery books, but that people don't read.
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I do want to write about Jane Whitefield again, but only when I have a good enough idea - something I've figured out about her that's news and that's worth a reader's time.
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Tod Goldberg has long been one of the most interesting writers around, and Gangsterland is his biggest and best book so far.
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You have very accurately described the difficulty of presenting my books on film: many of my characters are alone most of the time, and when they do talk, what they say is mostly lies. That can make for a pretty confusing film.
Thomas Perry
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When I write a book, I'm making it the best book I can.
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The characters you refer to as predatory and unsavory are useful. They're the ones who make a novel into a thriller. They're active, and most of the common virtues, the signs of a good person, are not.
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There is no place so benighted and godforsaken that some moron won't go there on vacation. People could be living in an open sewer and swallowing dirt to stop the hunger, and there'd be a couple from Larchmont wearing comfortable shoes there to take pictures of them.
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There are days when I intentionally don't write. For instance, I never write when I'm traveling, because travel is a situation where I can learn more by looking and listening than by working.
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Once you have invented a character with three dimensions and a voice, you begin to realize that some of the things you'd like him to do to further your plot are things that such a person wouldn't, or couldn't, do.
Thomas Perry
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I do try not to spend much time reading in the suspense genre.
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I held a variety of jobs - most notably ten years working in universities - and kept on writing.
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Contrary to what many writers imply about the process, nobody forces a writer to sell his work to the film industry.
Thomas Perry