Mark Billingham Quotes
When I began to write, I was surprised at how little London had been used in crime fiction. Places such as Edinburgh or Oxford or L.A. seemed to have stronger identities.

Quotes to Explore
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I have no interest in non-fiction. I don't read it and don't watch it and don't write it, other than a little journalistic column.
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I just want people to see that I do my own stuff, that I'm not stupid, and I can make fun of myself.
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I can't even imagine what it's like and right now I'm like in shock, I can't believe that I'm Olympic Champion.
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If I sit down to write a young-adult novel, then I'm going to write either to the punch-pulling expectation of what I can't do, or I'm going to go the other way and think about what can I sneak in to be 'down with the kids' - which would be excruciating.
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I'm missing work. We didn't have enough money for preschool. I had a panic attack. I couldn't do it. I became one of those horrible foster parents who give the kids back.
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I actually think one of my strengths is my storytelling.
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I certainly have played women who have a pioneer spirit and longing for adventure.
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One of the reasons I come to California is that the Republican party seems to have given up on California, and my message to those in California is that we're going to compete nationally as a party, and that includes California.
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I do think you need to understand a character's motivation and perspective.
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There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.
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Be it Valentine's Day, Father's Day or Mother's Day, I feel all days are reminders of some feelings. February 14 doesn't hold any special relevance for me.
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If you don't have public hangings for bad culture in a company, if you don't take people out and let them say, they went home to spend more time with the family. It's crazy.
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If you want to save a species, simply decide to eat it. Then it will be managed - like chickens, like turkeys, like deer, like Canadian geese.
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Philanthropy without scale and sustainability is like any other bad business that will simply wither and die on the vine.
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When people say good things about me, judge me based on my behaviour and work, that makes me happier than a film's success would.
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Before 1959, some Americans saw Cuba as something to exploit, ignored poverty, enabled corruption. And since 1959, we’ve been shadow-boxers in this battle of geopolitics and personalities. I know the history, but I refuse to be trapped by it.
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To know yourself less beloved than you love, is a dreadful feeling
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Written poetry is worth reading once, and then should be destroyed. Let the dead poets make way for others. Then we might even come to see that it is our veneration for what has already been created, however beautiful and valid it may be, that petrifies us.
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Listen to the people who love you. Believe that they are worth living for even when you don't believe it.
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To be confronted as you exit the polling place is really a matter of if you have the time, if you have the inclination to speak to a stranger, and if you want to divulge what is a very sacred, private matter - the way that you just voted.
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The poetical language of an age should be the current language heightened.
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I don't think there's anything wrong with having sex, you know. At any age.
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I always wanted to be some kind of writer - I wrote plays and songs and "books" before I realized living and breathing people still wrote poems.
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When I began to write, I was surprised at how little London had been used in crime fiction. Places such as Edinburgh or Oxford or L.A. seemed to have stronger identities.