Michael Connelly quotes - page 2

I wrote my first real murder story as a journalist for the Daytona Beach News Journal in 1980. It was about a body found in the woods. Later, the murder was linked to a serial killer who was later caught and executed for his crimes. (Michael Connelly)

Now I'm writing about contemporary Los Angeles from memory. My process was to hang out, observe, research what I was writing about, and almost immediately go back to my office and write those sections. So it was a very close transfer between observation and writing.

Michael Connelly

The characters I write about are very internal.

Michael Connelly

I think there'd be huge losses if there weren't newspapers. I know everything's shifting to the Internet and some people would say, 'News is news, what you're talking about is a change of consumption, not the product that's out there.' But I think there is a change.

Michael Connelly

When I am so intensely involved with writing my books, I don't like to reread them. I feel like that story is done.

Michael Connelly

I think books with weak or translucent plots can survive if the character being drawn along the path is rich, interesting and multi-faceted. The opposite is not true.

Michael Connelly

As a reporter, you develop an ear for dialogue because it's your job to capture it accurately.

Michael Connelly

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.

Michael Connelly

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that when you look into the darkness of the abyss the abyss looks into you. Probably no other line or thought more inspires or informs my work.

Michael Connelly

You can fall in love and make love many times but there is only one bullet with your name etched on the side. And if you are lucky enough to be shot with that bullet then the wound never heals.

Michael Connelly

I don't miss being a reporter as a job, but I do miss the everyday interaction with the front line of law enforcement. I still have a cadre of cops who keep me up to date, but I don't have the access I used to. (Michael Connelly)

I'm always looking at ways of shaking up the writing experience because I think it helps.

Michael Connelly

That's the irony in the work: the best stories are the worst things that happen. My best times were somebody else's worst.

Michael Connelly

We're all seeking order. We're all seeking control.

Michael Connelly

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.

Michael Connelly

I don't think anyone will believe me, but I've never been pressured by a publisher to churn out a book.

Michael Connelly

She refused to accept the simple truism that the better you were, the bigger threat you were to those at the top.

Michael Connelly

I think I would spend the first 30 weeks not writing, just clearing my head and seeing parts of the world I haven't seen and going back to places I have seen and love.

Michael Connelly

I'm going to have to be impressed and feel confident in the people I'm handing a book to - or I'm not going to do it. Once you hand it to them, you're out. You have no control over it.

Michael Connelly

I've been able to write at least one book a year for 20 years, and I don't think I would've had that kind of drive if I hadn't come out of the journalism business.

Michael Connelly

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Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly - Image

Photo: Mark Coggins from San Francisco, CC BY 2.0

Occupation: American Author
Born: July 21, 1956
Quotes count: 45

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