How I work is that I write a story I'd like to read. Then you fly to Paris or Sydney and the interviewers talk about the greater significance of your work. Michael Connelly More Quotes by Michael Connelly More Quotes From Michael Connelly If the system turns away from the abuses inflicted on the guilty, then who can be next but the innocents? Michael Connelly abuse guilty next You can't patch a wounded soul with a Band-Aid. Michael Connelly ptsd band soul It's only a wonderful world if you can make it that way. There are no street signs pointing to Paradise Road. Michael Connelly paradise way world The setting sun burned the sky pink and orange in the same bright hues as surfers' bathing suits. It was beautiful deception, Bosch thought, as he drove north on the Hollywood Freeway to home. Sunsets did that here. Made you forget it was the smog that made their colors so brilliant, that behind every pretty picture there could be an ugly story. Michael Connelly sunset home beautiful 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 character book thinking What is important is not what you hear said, it's what you observe. Michael Connelly important said You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more. Michael Connelly three twenties writing The built-in form is a window frame. You can use this genre [crime fiction] to go where you want to go, and explore what you want to explore. In some ways it gives you a lot of freedom because you have a framework readers are looking for. Michael Connelly use giving fiction There is no client as scary as an innocent man. Michael Connelly innocent-man scary men I'm a disciple of Raymond Chandler, who said in his essays that there's a quality of redemption in anything that can be called art. Michael Connelly redemption quality art Well, did he do it?" She always asked the irrelevant question. It didn't matter in terms of the strategy of the case whether the defendant "did it" or not. What mattered was the evidence against him -- the proof -- and if and how it could be neutralized. My job was to bury the proof, to color the proof a shade of gray. Gray was the color of reasonable doubt. Michael Connelly ifs-and color jobs Everybody counts or nobody counts Michael Connelly Los Angeles was the kind of place where everybody was from somewhere else and nobody really droppped anchor. It was a transient place. People drawn by the dream, people running from the nightmare. Twelve million people and all of them ready to make a break for it if necessary. Figuratively, literally, metaphorically -- any way you want to look at it -- everbody in L.A. keeps a bag packed. Just in case. Michael Connelly anchors dream running There is nothing you can do about the past except keep it there. Michael Connelly moving-on heartbreak letting-go ...it is how a person goes about quenching his desires or living with them unrequited that the readers get a glimpse of his true character. Michael Connelly glimpse desire character I've learned over the years that sometimes if you ask the same question more than once you get different responses. Michael Connelly different sometimes years Any writer would rather dig into character than dig into fancy plots. Michael Connelly fancy plot character A newspaper is the center of a community, it's one of the tent poles of the community, and that's not going to be replaced by Web sites and blogs. Michael Connelly tents newspapers community I love movies. Movies have influenced me as a writer. Michael Connelly movie-love I would change very little because I have been very, very fortunate. A lot of things fell into place for me simply by happenstance. When that happens you don't really want to change anything, even if you could. Editorially my regrets are few and for the most part minor. I look back on my first published book and think I held on to it too long, babied it too long. Michael Connelly regret change book
