Ed McBain Quotes

19 quotes in 360 categories

• The world is made of stairs, and there are those who go up and those who go down.
• A detective sees death in all the various forms at least five times a week.
• I began using pseudonyms early in my career, when I was being paid a quarter a cent a word for my work, and when I…
• Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's…
• I have a book coming out in September, for example, where the plot concerns counterfeiting, and I had to do a lot of research on…
• I never take ideas from the headlines. I feel that if a story is good enough, a real story that is, then it's already been…
• I enjoy what I do every minute of the day, even when the going gets tough. When I first began writing, I used to work…
• I try to keep all my novels in print. Sometimes publishers don't agree with me as to their worth.
• I wanted to be an artist. I was studying art. I wanted to be a great painter. When I went into the Navy, there wasn't…
• I would certainly never suggest that any lesbian should be ashamed of her sexual preference.
• I've never been a cop nor hope to be a cop, thanks.
• I would like to win the Pulitzer Prize. I would like to win the Nobel Prize. I would like to win a Tony award for…
• It seemed to me... that the only valid people to deal with crime were cops, and I would like to make the lead character, rather…
• Its a matter of style. The Evan Hunter style and the Ed McBain style are very, very different.
• Changing writing styles is like an actor taking on a different part.
• Readers are what it's all about, aren't they? If not, why am I writing?
• I know that all cops are not sterling characters. But you have to have someone to root for. I balance it with rotten cops who…
• He sees death in the prostitutes who have witnessed the death of honor, and daily multiply the death of love, who bleed away their own…
• He sees it in the juvenile street gangs, who live in fear of death and who propagate fear by inflicting death to banish fear. And…

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