Whenever people ask where I get my sick and twisted ideas from, I reply, 'Just open your eyes.' Mark Billingham More Quotes by Mark Billingham More Quotes From Mark Billingham When a crime writer thinks up a delicious twist, it is a great moment. Time to relax and take the rest of the day off. I do think that it can be overdone, however. Mark Billingham daymomentrelaxtime It may sound surprising, but a joke and a crime novel work in very much the same way. The comedian/writer leads their audience along the garden path. The audience know what's coming, or at least they think they do until they get hit from a direction they were not expecting. Mark Billingham thinkgardenpathwork I could never gamble on stocks and shares because I saw my father get hurt that way - he lost quite a lot of money when the stock market collapsed in 2001. Mark Billingham moneyhurtfatherway What I usually do is hoard money - I accumulate as much as possible in the fear of not having enough to pay tax. Mark Billingham possiblemoneyenoughfear I was never a fan of cozy mysteries of anything set in the countryside, you know. Mark Billingham neverknowyoucozy I'm a city boy. I grew up in a big city, in Birmingham, and I want to write about a city. It's much richer tapestry for me than green fields. Fields and wild life make me feel ill. I don't like - I don't want to write about that stuff. Mark Billingham citymegreenlife The problem with being a writer is that some readers tend to think that anything that comes out of a character's mouth is you talking. Mark Billingham thinkyouproblemcharacter In the 1970s, there was a trend for all detectives on TV to have some quirk or gimmick, and this was often physical. Mark Billingham trendphysicaltvsome Ian Rankin's Rebus is the king of modern British crime fiction. He is dour, determined, and constantly falls foul of his seniors. For all this, we root for him. He is eminently loveable, a quixotic hero moving through the darker half of a Jekyll and Hyde Edinburgh. Mark Billingham kingcrimeheromoving
