...the larger world lay not across oceans but within the human mind and heart. Greg Iles More Quotes by Greg Iles More Quotes From Greg Iles Her touch was as knowing and confident as her eyes, and as she focused all her attention upon me, I remembered that there is nothing so thrilling as a woman of words when she decides that the time for words is past. Greg Iles eye knowing past I will do those things which make me happy today and which I can also live with ten years from now. Greg Iles make-me-happy today years Just because you will not see the work completed does not mean you are free not to take it up. Greg Iles doe mean A lot of my books have been that way. My World War II thriller about Sarin gas [Black Cross] was published two months before the Sarin attack in the Japanese subway. There are very weird coincidences out there. And I do have one surefire plot I have not and probably never will write, because of my fear someone will carry it out. Greg Iles writing war book Sooner or later. It had better be sooner. Later is like the horizon; it recedes as you approach. Greg Iles sooner-or-later horizon approach Man is the universe becoming conscious of itself. Greg Iles becoming conscious men If a man lived long enough, his past would always overtake him, no matter how fast he ran or how morally he tried to live subsequently. And how men dealt with that law ultimately revealed their true natures. Greg Iles law men past Some things we must pass over in silence. Greg Iles silence He always reminded us that every atom in our bodies was once part of a distant star that had exploded. He talked about how evolution moves from simplicity toward complexity, and how human intelligence is the highest known expression of evolution. I remember him telling me that a frog's brain is much more complex than a star. He saw human consciousness as the first neuron of the universe coming to life and awareness. A spark in the darkness, waiting to spread to fire. Greg Iles stars fire moving The Terrible Truth is that brutality is part of human nature, and all the laws in the world can't neuter it. Greg Iles brutality law world Any person who wants to govern the world is by definition the wrong person to do it. Greg Iles definitions want world My mother, a teacher, encouraged me to use my creativity as an actual way to make a living, and my father, a Mississippi physician, did two things. First, he taught me that all human beings should be treated equally because no one is better than anyone else, and he never pressured me to become a doctor. Greg Iles mother teacher father I have not written a perfect sentence, in the literary sense. It's a lot easier to throw a perfect pass than to write a perfect sentence, if that sentence is meant to perform more than a mechanical function. Greg Iles function perfect writing See Spot run!' is a perfect sentence in some ways. But I doubt the critics would say it was. Greg Iles doubt perfect running My father has always been the heart of my Penn Cage novels. Greg Iles cages heart father When everything is at risk, good judgment, not haste, makes the difference between life and death. Panic is the enemy. Greg Iles life-and-death risk differences Experiences are like hoarded gold. Whenever I dole out a piece of my private suffering, that is when I get letters from all over the world. Greg Iles gold suffering letters My ancestors fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War; I was raised in Natchez, Miss.; I performed in the Confederate Pageant for a decade; I dug ditches and loaded trucks with black men who taught me more than any book ever could; and I graduated from Ole Miss. Anyone who survived that is a de facto expert on the South. Greg Iles me black men war I like taking a character at the most intense moments of their lives and exploring all that in full and then moving on. Greg Iles moving-on moments character moving Like my best friend, I asked for drums for Christmas, and got them. But when he moved on to guitar, I realized two things: (1) guitar is a much more expressive instrument, (2) way more girls pay attention to guitar players than to drummers. Greg Iles best guitar christmas best-friend
