Charles McCarry Quotes

I write in a very peculiar way. I think about a book for 25 or 30 years in a kind of inchoate way, and at one point or another, I realize the book is ready to be written. I usually have a character, a first line, and general idea of what the book is going to be about.

Charles McCarry

• Character
• Book

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Quotes to Explore

• Yes, there is a terrible moral in 'Dorian Gray' - a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book.

  

  Oscar Wilde
  • Book
  • Moral
  • Healthy

• I was devastated when I got the review for my first book. The book came out a couple years before the women's movement broke through, and people were putting it down, asking, 'Why does the woman in this book need to get a divorce? Why can't she just shut up and be happy?'

  

  Gail Sheehy
  • People
  • Up
  • Women

• What we've seen of Rey, she looks like she can handle her stuff. So most of the comments I get are from parents who say how wonderful it is that their little girls can see this character.

  

  Daisy Ridley
  • Character
  • Parents
  • Stuff

• Once I was chased by the king of all scorpions. I have the most notorious animal stories.

  

  Rachel Hunter
  • Animal
  • King
  • Once

• I haven't found it to be particularly enjoyable... ninety percent of the time when I go on dates, I'm thinking, 'I could be reading my book instead.'

  

  Zosia Mamet
  • Time
  • Thinking
  • Book

• The problem with writing a monthly book is that you're going through your work like a man running for a bus, red-faced and out of breath. There isn't time for reflection or critical self-examination.

  

  J. Michael Straczynski
  • Time
  • Work
  • Writing

• I'd like to do something where there's a strong female character and some action. I've done a few stunts in the past.

  

  Vicky McClure
  • Done
  • Character
  • Past

• When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

  

  W. Somerset Maugham
  • Character
  • Friends
  • Personality

• In the biographical novel, there's only one person involved. I, the author, spend two to five years becoming the main character. I do that so by the time you get to the bottom of Page 2 or 3, you forget your name, where you live, your profession and the year it is. You become the main character of the book. You live the book.

  

  Irving Stone
  • Time
  • Live
  • Character

• When we were subjected to a vicious character assassination campaign orchestrated by senior White House officials and championed by their allies in the right-wing echo chamber, Hillary reached out to us. Her counsel during that tumultuous period was as timely as it was wise.

  

  Valerie Plame
  • Character
  • House
  • Period

• I like to believe, as a writer, that anybody who isn't a reader yet has just not found the right book.

  

  Gabrielle Zevin
  • Believe
  • Book
  • Right

• You have to understand that while I pre-plot the meta story of a given book, I often have no idea of what will happen on the next page, let alone the next chapter. That's what makes it fun for me; I write the books the same way many people read them.

  

  R. A. Salvatore
  • People
  • Book
  • Fun

• I started in theatre, and for me, it was all about transformation. You transform into the character that you're playing.

  

  Rainn Wilson
  • Character
  • Theatre
  • Transformation

• It's easier to release an ebook than a print book.

  

  J. A. Konrath
  • Book
  • Easier
  • Print

• Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.

  

  Malala Yousafzai
  • World
  • Book
  • Remember

• I have two daughters: One an open book, one a locked box. So the question of privacy is a challenging one. How much do kids need? How much should we give? How do we prepare them to live in a world where the very notion of privacy opens a generational chasm?

  

  Nancy Gibbs
  • World
  • Live
  • Book

• Butler's novel 'Kindred' may be the book most widely read by readers outside science fiction; it has been assigned as a text in classrooms and has sold steadily since its publication in 1979.

  

  Karen Joy Fowler
  • May
  • Book
  • Science

• Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Character
  • Speak
  • Walls

• If you love a character that gets killed, it's agony.

  

  Andrew Lincoln
  • Character

• I like to add props to render the specificities of place - paintings, food, clothing, signs, infrastructure, music, sayings and slang particular to the region and particular to the character. And props shouldn't just sit there; they should get used.

  

  Kaui Hart Hemmings
  • Music
  • Character
  • Food

• I feel like all of my characters now take this congested situation, they clash, and from there you purge yourself.

  

  Ang Lee
  • Character
  • Feels
  • Situation

• To drift with every passion till my soulIs a stringed lute on which all winds can play, Is it for this that I have given away Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll Scrawled over on some boyish holiday With idle songs for pipe and virelay, Which do but mar the secret of the whole.

  

  Oscar Wilde
  • Life
  • Control
  • Wisdom

• I have no idea what the mind of a lowlife scoundrel is like, but I know what the mind of an honest man is like; it is terrifying.”

  

  Abel Hermant
  • Mind
  • Honest
  • Scoundrel

• I write in a very peculiar way. I think about a book for 25 or 30 years in a kind of inchoate way, and at one point or another, I realize the book is ready to be written. I usually have a character, a first line, and general idea of what the book is going to be about.

  

  Charles McCarry
  • Character
  • Book