Matthew Reilly: I've been around long enough now that people who don't...

To anyone who knows a writer, never underestimate the power of your encouragement.

Matthew Reilly

underestimate encouragement knows

A friend's loyalty lasts longer than their memory. Over the course of a long friendship, you might fight with your friend, even get angry with them. But a true friend will forget that anger after a while, because their loyalty to their friend outweighs the memory of the disagreement.

Matthew Reilly

true-friend loyalty memories

There is no such thing as an "aspiring writer". You are a writer. Period.

Matthew Reilly

aspiring-writers periods writing

There’s an Oriental saying I like: “If aggression meets empty space it tends to defeat itself.

Matthew Reilly

empty defeat space

One of the things I have come up against time and again in my career is the notion that because a book is easy to read it was somehow easy to write.

Matthew Reilly

careers writing book

I have both held and beheld unlimited power and of it I know but one thing. It drives men mad.' - Alexander the Great

Matthew Reilly

mad unlimited men

I wasn't one of those kids who dreamed of writing novels when I was 8 or 12. I wanted to be a film director. I wanted to make big action movies. I loved movies like 'Die Hard,' 'Predator,' 'Aliens,' 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.'

Matthew Reilly

loved movies die action

I write about all manner of things: a guy fighting aliens in the New York State Library, Antarctica, Inca civilization in Peru, the Great Pyramid at Giza, and people often ask me, where do I get these ideas from? They come from reading widely, watching a lot of documentaries, and increasingly ,as I was able to, travelling around the world.

Matthew Reilly

great me people world

I imagine I'm a very unusual guy to date. You know, I've got toys on the shelves, and I've got the cars.

Matthew Reilly

know you toys guy

I'm very good at plot.

Matthew Reilly

very good plot

Zoos have always fascinated me. What child hasn't wondered what would happen if all the animals escaped from the zoo? Or what would happen if they got caught in an enclosure?

Matthew Reilly

animals child me always

I read 'The Hobbit' only when I was an adult. I had a lot of friends, teenagers, who discovered reading through 'The Hobbit,' but it wasn't something that I discovered until later in life.

Matthew Reilly

something friends reading life

I think 'The Time Traveler's Wife' is one of the most brilliantly marketed books I have ever seen.

Matthew Reilly

books think wife time

My first book, 'Contest,' had a guy fighting aliens in the New York Public Library. The second book, 'Ice Station,' and 'Temple' were present-day military thrillers.

Matthew Reilly

temple library fighting book

Fantasy enabled me to break the shackles and create a whole new level of 'the world is in danger' stakes.

Matthew Reilly

new me fantasy world

In 'Seven Ancient Wonders,' Jack West and his team break someone out of Guantanamo Bay. I'm not going to preach to people and say, 'Guantanamo Bay, bad', but I will have my hero go and break somebody out of it, and maybe people will think about it that way.

Matthew Reilly

think team hero people

What I do is write books for an audience that thinks in a movie language. That's the way I think, and I also believe that not enough authors keep up with the audience.

Matthew Reilly

think language believe way

When I started writing, I was reading people such as Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton, who did 'Jurassic Park,' which is possibly the most action-filled book you'll read, apart from mine, and I said to myself, 'Why aren't these guys doing big-scale action like you would see in a movie?'

Matthew Reilly

myself you book people

They were targeting Jewish people and also law enforcement.

Matthew Reilly

I've been around long enough now that people who don't get into the outrageousness, the over-the-top stuff, they know not to buy my books anymore.