Probably careful plotting reflects my personality. I am meticulous by nature. I can't imagine speed-writing anything that happens to pop into my head.
William LandayYou can write a great book and be ignored. Literary history is full of classics that were under-appreciated in their own time.
William LandayI don't ever write with a particular audience in mind. I just write books that please me.
William LandayBut sometimes you can't figure everything out because you can't ever really understand other people. You can't understand why they do what they do. You just have to accept a little mystery, Ben. People are mysterious, the world is mysterious. You can't know everything. You're not supposed to. This isn't a history book. It's just the world. It's a messy place.
William LandayAt some point as adults we cease to be our parents' children and we become our children's parents instead.
William LandayGenes are not simple triggers. No one is hardwired to commit murder or any other crime. Our actions are always the result of stupendously complex gene-environment interactions, and environment is likely to remain the more important influence by far.
William LandayCrime and legal stories, broadly speaking, are just where my interest happens to lie.
William LandayWell, I outline fanatically. I am a long thinker and a slow writer, though I am trying to get faster.
William LandayAn emotion is a thought, yes, an idea, but it is also a sensation, an ache in your body. Desire, love, hate, fear, repulsion - you feel these things in your muscle and bones, not just in your mind.
William Landayno one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed
William LandayDamage hardens us all. It will harden you too, when it finds you—and it will find you
William LandayI can't say that I ever actually decided to become a writer. It kind of snuck up on me.
William LandayThere is no absolute beginning to any story, after all. There is only the moment you begin watching.
William Landay