The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Jeffery Deaver
American
Writer
About the author
Hardcover books are fairly expensive these days and to read one requires a significant commitment of time in our busy society. So I want to make sure that when readers buy one of my books they get something they're familiar with.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Want
#Time
#Commitment
#Society
#Books
I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Heroes
In other words, the people who populate my books are more than caricatures.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Words
#People
#Books
I liked the challenge of writing in a very concise structure in which both meaning and form are important.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Writing
#Challenge
#Meaning
But one does not make living writing poetry unless you're a professor, and one frankly doesn't get a lot of girls as a poet.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Writing
#Living
#Poetry
#Girls
I spend eight months outlining and researching the novel before I begin to write a single word of the prose.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Prose
#Word
#Months
I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#School
#Literary
I write pretty much anywhere - on planes, in hotel rooms, anywhere in my house.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Pretty
I've always written, all my life, and when I was very young I developed an interest in poetry.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Life
#Poetry
#Interest
I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Idea
#Writer
Ideally, I like to integrate the human issues into the suspense story itself.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Suspense
If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Want
#Writing
#Language
I like the way words go together and I like the gamesmanship of writing poetry. It is such a challenge.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Words
#Writing
#Challenge
#Poetry
The easy answer is that writing novels is a lot more fun than practicing law.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Fun
#Law
#Writing
It means working harder to do the research but I don't really mind - I don't think I have what it takes to chase criminals through back alleys and wade through blood at crime scenes.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Crime
#Research
#Mind
#Blood
My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#World
#Books
#Care
Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Relationships
#Life
#Day
#Writers
Of course, I write crime stories, and I have to describe violence and the aftermath of violence.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Crime
#Violence
Readers are paramount. I live to write books for them.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Books
Rule one: Write about settings you're familiar with.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
The best way to learn about writing is to study the work of other writers you admire.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Work
#Study
#Writing
#Writers
In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Relationships
#Conflict
#Suspense
The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
The recent fascination, I think, reflects the shift in approach by law enforcement officials to embrace technology as wholeheartedly as the rest of the world.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#World
#Technology
#Law
#Rest
To answer that I have to describe what I think is my responsibility as a thriller writer: To give my readers the most exciting roller coaster ride of a suspense story I can possibly think of.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Responsibility
#Suspense
You think publishing is tough but the music world is ten times tougher.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#World
#Publishing
#Music
When it comes time to write the book itself I'll shut the lights out, picture the scene I'm about to write then close my eyes and go at it. Yes, I can touch type.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Time
#Eyes
Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Style
#Books
#Trying
So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Work
#Present
I spend about eight months researching and outlining my book.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Months
When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Work
Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#Science
#Tradition
For me a thriller is a very carefully structured story.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
Generally my typical books have lots of twists and turns a big surprise ending and then usually another surprise at the end and ideally, as in Garden of Beasts, we get to the very end and we find at the last few pages that there's yet another surprise.
Jeffery Deaver,
American
Writer
#End
#Ending
#Books
#Garden