Quotes By Lee Child

I had a brief theater background and loved the backstage world there's more backstage work in television, so I saw a job advertised and applied, and got it. That was back in 1977, when getting jobs was easy.

So, how to stay inside the world of entertainment without actually getting another job? I felt the only logical answer was to become a novelist. So I wrote the first book - driven by some very real feelings of desperation - and it worked.

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.'

The British regulatory system was revised, so that bigger profits were encouraged, which removed the option of big spending on programming. Quality just fell off a cliff, and all the old hands either left or were fired for being too expensive.

A calm environment is for after I finish work.

I have the 'thing' worked out - the trick or the surprise or the pivotal fact. Then I just start somewhere and let the story work itself out.

We would all love to walk up to someone and shoot them in the head, there's no doubt about that. We're too civilised to admit it, but we're happy to read about it.

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

L.A. has a fantastic car scene and because the climate is so gentle, cars can last forever.

I just felt from personal observation that there is nothing more dislocated or alienated than a lifelong military person trying to cope in civilian life. It's like two completely separate planets.

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.

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

I wanted readers to be genuinely unsure as to whether she's telling the truth or lying. It meant making her partly sympathetic, and partly unsympathetic, which wasn't easy.

The key to thrillers is vicarious pleasure.

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

Male authors always take care to make their heroes at least one inch taller than they are, and considerably more muscular. Just as female authors give their heroines better hair and slimmer thighs.

Yeah, I am pretty sure of myself.

I've discovered writers by reading books left in airplane seats and weird hotels.

I was fired from my television job, simple as that. Well, downsized, really, a classic 1990s situation.

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

The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end.

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.

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.

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

What do I miss about the UK? Sadly, almost nothing. Maybe the midnight sun, in June in the north. That's all.

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

It's always sad if anybody you know has a personal problem.

My mother still calls me Jim and that is about it. Everyone else calls me Lee. My wife calls me whatever.

I love visiting LA. It's an endlessly fascinating city, and is, of course, America's entertainment capital. Each time I go, I fall in love with it all over again. That said, it's not the sort of place I'd want to live.

I'm opposed to censorship of any kind, especially by government. But it's plain common sense that producers should target their product with some kind of sensitivity.