Quotes By Lee Child

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.

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

Yeah, I am pretty sure of myself.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Writing is showbusiness for shy people. That's how I see it.

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.

The thriller is not a recent invention. It probably goes back to the dawn of storytelling.

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 always tense when you move a character from a book to the screen. Always tense.

There is nothing wrong with just telling the story.

I need a stimulating environment to write because my books are driven at 100 miles per hour at a time.

All of us write wish fulfillment.

I have a kind of old-fashioned, artisan approach.

I do a little fact checking now and then. Other than that its impact is simply that email has revolutionized communication for me, and my website has built up a community of readers, which is a lot of fun.