Mystery Writer Quotes

I considered my home sanctuary from the judicial arena, far from the Fernoza Family legacy, and I had no intention of sharing it with anyone. ~ A.E.H. Veenman

One of the hopes we have when we hear or read an interview with a mystery writer is to get inside the writer's head, to learn something we didn't know before. ~ Otto Penzler

MG was nearly mythical, other than my entries - no interaction with users on
the off chance one was a Fernoza on the troll. And today proved I couldn't take a stranger bearing gifts at face-value. ~ A.E.H. Veenman

Writing for the love of writing. My muse makes no apologies under this pen name. ;) ~ Amanda Wylde

I have never, ever, not once, met a writer who said he or she would never read a mystery or a story set in some imagined future. ~ Russell Smith

It's an honour to have such a wonderful international cast on board for this world famous murder mystery. Writer Stewart Harcourt has created an exquisite script. His attention to detail is impeccable. ~ David Suchet

Any mystery writer is both magician and moralist ... two species of artist in short supply. ~ Sue Grafton

I decided, long ago, back-room negotiations with a nine iron and a pen, witness tampering, and suppression of evidence weren't for me. That's
what was expected of an independent lawyer hired by Louis Fernoza.

I wanted the corner office overlooking a
cityscape, the fine car and house, and the ability to sleep at night with a clear conscience. I'd say I achieved it all but not without a price. ~ A.E.H. Veenman

The thing about being a mystery writer, what marks a mystery writer out from a chick lit author or historical fiction writer, is that you always find a mystery in every situation. ~ Tana French

The philosopher aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. Mystery, on the other hand, is demanded and pursued by the religious instinct; mystery constitutes the essence of worship. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Not much to say except to warn you not to get too serious about all this, if you want to become a writer of fiction in the future. If you intend to become a critic, that is a Whale of another color ... Playing around with symbols, even as a critic, can be a kind of kiddish parlor game. A little of it goes a long way. There are other things of greater value in any novel or story ... humanity, character analysis, truth on other levels ... Good symbolism should be as natural as breathing ... and as unobtrusive. ~ Ray Bradbury

We slip into a dream, forgetting the room we're sitting in, forgetting it's lunchtime or time to go to work. We recreate, with minor and for the most part unimportant changes, the vivid and continuous dream the writer worked out in his mind (revising and revising until he got it right) and captured in language so that other human beings, whenever they feel like it, may open his book and dream that dream again. ~ John Gardner

God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. I honor my tradition, I walk through my tradition, but I don't think my tradition defines God, I think it only points me to God. ~ John Shelby Spong

I'm a good collaborative writer. I can usually come in and add a couple lines to something, and add a riff or a B-section, or a bridge that will tie things together. I can do stuff like that. But to write a whole song, I don't have the patience for that, I guess. ~ James Young

Like Hemingway and Faulkner, but in an entirely different mode, Fitzgerald had that singular quality without which a writer is not really a writer at all, and that is a voice, a distinct and identifiable voice. This is really not the same thing as a style; a style can be emulated, a voice cannot, and the witty, rueful, elegaic voice gives his work its bright authenticity. ~ William Styron

We never know how much has been missing from our lives until a true writer comes along. ~ Alfred Kazin

Mystery. The strangeness of place so necessary to some creative spirits. A perfect mixture of the classical utopia and the pagan mystery. ~ Dan Simmons

I think having women behind the cameras is exciting - whether it's as a director or a writer or a producer - because it does feel like we're in the middle of this awakening of realizing that it's important for women to have a voice. ~ Mary Elizabeth Ellis

I've never really lived with somebody. Only for very brief periods. I learned I'm not a good roommate. I'm better off when we visit each other. I like the mystery. ~ Marlon Wayans

One of my biggest influences as a writer is J. K. Rowling. I grew up with Harry Potter. One thing I absolutely loved was how every single person in Harry's world was so three-dimensional - it was as if each one was the main character in his or her own story and was just making a guest appearance in Harry's story. I strive to do that as a writer. I want every side character to be the main character of his or her own story. ~ Angie Thomas

Yesterday is history
Tomorrow's a mystery ~ Justin Timberlake

There were times when their eyes would meet, and they would stand gazing at each other as though neither could believe the reality of the other being so close to them. The years of waiting for each other offered an anticipation factor still in an immensely high status. At these moments, there was no one else in the world but the two of them and their hearts were bonding for eternity. ~ D. S. Mixell, Lady Ettrick

Fritz Mondale is not some synthetic Masked Marvel or Mystery Man. He is not made of silicon and micro-chip flakes. He is made of flesh and blood and brains. ~ Lane Kirkland

In every society the artist or writer remains an outsider ... ~ Simone De Beauvoir

The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can. ~ Julian Barnes

Keep alive the fact that a mystery has come into existence and that a physical being serves as a house for this mystery. ~ Paul Caponigro

The name Patrick Modiano drew a blank in the States when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2014. But in Paris, his home city, his many novels (more than thirty) are read, the screenplay he wrote for Louis Malle's masterpiece Lacombe, Lucien remains a favorite, and the songs he wrote for Françoise Hardy you hear in cafés and on the radio. Still, Modiano, as man and artist, remains a mystery man. The search for phantoms of history is his basic plotline, the searches as well as the enigmatic love stories, all of which take place along the streets of Paris. ~ Susan Cahill

An editor is like a professional reader, and as I became a better reader, I also became a better writer. ~ Karen Thompson Walker

I don't think there's been any writer like Samuel Beckett. He's unique. He was a most charming man and I used to send him my plays. ~ Harold Pinter

For a country to have a great writer is like having another government, ~ Mark Bowden

Kirtan is for all people. There are no experts, no beginners. The practice itself is the teacher, guiding us to ourselves. Kirtan allows us to enter into a mystery world-a world where all the logic of our minds, all the condition and learning are left outside. And in this mystery, we create a temple inside of our hearts, a place of refuge, a place of love, a place of just being. ~ Jai Uttal

Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. ~ Stephen King

Just as the sailor yearns for port, the writer longs for the last line. ~ Alix Christie

She bent her finger and then straightened it. The mystery was in the instant before it moved, the dividing moment between not moving and moving, when her intention took effect. It was like a wave breaking. If she could only find herself at the crest, she thought, she might find the secret of herself, that part of her that was really in charge. She brought her forefinger closer to her face and stared at it, urging it to move. It remained still because she was pretending ... And when she did crook it finally, the action seemed to start in the finger itself, not in some part of her mind. ~ Ian McEwan

I'm an obsessive writer who needs and loves revision. Writing helps me learn and helps me teach. ~ Kiese Laymon

My life as a writer consists of 1/8 talent and 7/8 discipline. ~ John Irving

A writer off-guard since the materials with which he works are so dangerous can expect agony as quick as a thunderclap. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

To be a writer is to constantly evolve and keep ones imagination expanding and that's what make a great author and artist. ~ Adona M. Pierre

For with all that is grand, grander is the expansion of the mind. ~ Nancy B. Brewer

The deepest mystery of Twitter is why celebrities and elected officials take part. After all, we all know they can't write their own lines. ~ David Harsanyi

Queens you must always be: queens to your lovers; queens to your husbands and your sons, queens of higher mystery to the world beyond ... But alas, you are too often idle and careless queens, grasping at majesty in the least things, while you abdicate it in the greatest. ~ Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

I could probably not say more than that life is a very deep mystery, and that finally the grace of God is all that can resolve it. And the grace of God is also a very deep mystery. ~ Marilynne Robinson

I can't imagine a more fulfilling thing for a writer than that you've made a strong impact on the lives of other people. Just because I've heard it before does not mean I don't want to hear it one more time. ~ Armistead Maupin

It is time to put down the pen; time to clear the throat. Speaking is a different thing altogether from writing. The spoken word has different properties, and different powers. If I have learned anything from writing down my own tale, it is this. ~ Dexter Palmer

If I could have married my wife and been a sports writer for the past 30 years, I wouldn't be sitting here - but I don't think I'd be sitting someplace where I was sorry to be sitting. ~ Richard Ford

Jackson watched in amazement that she had convinced the driver to handle the vehicle in such a way. Tourists began taking pictures of Imogene, standing tall in the seat while the driver guided the horse with the reins. She kept her eye trained on Catfish, describing his every step as if the driver couldn't see the runner for himself … Catfish stopped at the "T" in the road up ahead. He was heaving air, and Imogene said, "We've worn him out, son. Keep on him. He's ours for the catchin'. ~ Hunter Murphy

One of the things that did intrigue me about when I read the pilot - because I had not read the books before doing the show - was the mystery aspect of it. I didn't feel that it was just a crime-based story. It really does have that mystery element, and it felt like a throwback to other shows in the past that had a bit more of that. There was something iconic about it. The fact that it's set in Boston gave it a feeling that was different to me. So, I am definitely more of a fan of mysteries than I am of a circular crime-based genre. ~ Sasha Alexander

A writer lives, at best, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all. ~ William Sansom

Even choosing the perfect dinner wine loses its earth-shattering importance if your guests happen to be cannibals, and you, the unsuspecting entree. ~ Lois Greiman