Christopher Bollen Quotes
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You find when you're writing a detective story that you're actually not trying to solve anything. You're trying to stop the reader from solving the puzzle.
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People aren't doing whodunits anymore.
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I definitely don't take any of intrusions in my private life personally. You learn how to have a sense of humor pretty quickly. I honestly don't keep up on it unless it's something that would hurt someone else. I can take care of myself, that's not the problem. But it's just not fair to bring anyone else into the picture.
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It's really hard to write about art in general. But it's exceptionally hard to fictionalize art and make work that isn't a parody, or is something that could withstand critique and exist in the art world as a valuable object, or a true piece.
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There's a structure to a detective story that I can easily understand. I understand playing that particular game. It's like solving a puzzle. Or creating a puzzle.
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As much as I adore Agatha Christie - and I think people make this claim about murder mysteries in general - it's often a very conservative mode of storytelling. Usually it's the greedy, climbing, new-money slimeball who wants to take from the aristocracy.
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I've never had a mentor. I've always wanted one. I'm actually really disappointed that nobody took my under their wing.
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Every time I try to write on vacation, I fail miserably.
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Secrets are never secure because they are always at risk of being found out.
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I also wonder why is it that so many of the movies and books that are detective stories are also the most aesthetically interesting? From Hollywood noirs to horror movies like The Shining 1980.
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I had lived in New York since 1996, sometimes in the worst neighborhoods, without even locking my door half the time.
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We lost so many talented artists and writers from the generations before ours that we're really lacking older figureheads.
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It's always surprised me that mainstream America had the good taste to like R.E.M. It doesn't have the digestible quality the general public tends to look for in its favorite musicians.
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I would stay at my grandma's house on my birthday every year and I remember she had a bookshelf of murder mystery books along with really frightening books, like one on Jack the Ripper. She also had a poster of a shark in the closet which also terrified me at the time.
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The first horror movie I saw, in first or second grade, was My Bloody Valentine 1981, where there's a deranged killer in a miner mask stalking a small coal town.
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It's hard for me to figure out where I want to be. But it's definitely in New York. I feel like New York throws different challenges at you and you can be more creative.
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I'm really much better at asking questions than answering them, since asking questions is like a constant deflection of oneself.
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My strength is character. I'm pretty good at building walking-talking humans with brains like beehives.
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There is something very romantic about the orphan figure in American literature.
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I have to say I do read partly for escapism. Why can't I escape and learn something?
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I was never afraid on stage. That's where I was the least afraid. I could just do what I do and I had the amplification and the lights.
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One day I want to write a full-on horror book.
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It's always fun to welcome new people into your life. When dating anyone or becoming friends with anyone who has a different profession, a different life, it opens doors. All my friends here do such different creative things. It's so awesome.
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I have always wanted to be either a cinematographer or a veterinarian.