Val McDermid Quotes

I don't write as much erotic romance as I used to, but I think that's just because my writing style has changed.

I spent years only ever reading horror and then trying to write horror - and deep down, a horror writer is still what I'd love to be. But it wasn't until I started writing crime that things began to work for me.

None of us, of course, will ever read all the books we'd like, but we can still make a stab at it.

I think ever since I started to read, there have been favorite novels for different stages of my life. And one is never bumped out of place to yield to another. Instead, I just add to my favorite shelves.

It took me ten years and seven books to bag an agent - it took me that long to start writing good.

If I could go back in time and tell my younger self that eventually that I'd become very successful writing Dune books after Frank Herbert's death, I would have laughed myself silly, I think, at how strange that prospect would be.

When I was in my early 20s, my dream was to write mystery novels. I wanted to do what my favourite crime writer, Ross Macdonald, did - crank out a book a year. The only problem - and it was a considerable one - was that I stank.

My sense of what a book should be has changed so radically. I like to think for the better.

I can't pick out one single book that had such a profound personal impact.

With the first issue of 'Weasel,' I was even aware myself that I'd improved. I still have affection for my earlier stuff, but I don't think it's anywhere near as good as 'Weasel.'

They've also asked me now to start on another series that we're gonna do after this Frontier Earth. But it's not science fiction, it's more in the Mystery and Crime division and that's another area I'm very interested in.

I personally feel I still have so much to learn as a writer; each novel is better than the one before, just because I'm getting better at it.

Now that my kids are out of the house, I'm finally able to get to the classics I never read: Emily Bronte, Dylan Thomas, Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22.' It's endless. They're all in this gigantic pile next to my bed.

I had done 12 little romance books, and I decided I wanted to move into crime fiction.

I can clearly trace my passion for reading back to the Jonesboro, Georgia, library, where for the first time in my life I had access to what seemed like an unlimited supply of books. This was where I discovered 'Encyclopedia Brown' and 'Nancy Drew,' 'Gone With the Wind' and 'Rebecca.' This was where I became inspired to be a writer.

I think there's a concept that crime fiction is or was male-dominated, but it really never has been.

In my experience, every book you write changes the conditions in which you write the next.

After my first book, I figured that since it was successful, I wanted to continue things better.

I was a late bloomer. I was 38 when my first book was out and 43 when my first crime novel was out. I had a story that could only be told as a crime story. I think the genre is good; it deals with the fundamental questions of life and death. The problem is there are too many bad crime stories.

I never imagined I'd write a book.

My book came out; and people began to think that topsy-turvy Louisa would amount to something after all.

I think the "crime novel" has replaced the sociological novel of the 1930s. I think the progenitor of that tradition is James M. Cain, who in my view is the most neglected writer in American literature.

Have you really read all those books in your room?” Alaska laughing- “Oh God no. I’ve maybe read a third of ‘em. But I’m going to read them all. I call it my Life’s Library. Every summer since I was little, I’ve gone to garage sales and bought all the books that looked interesting. So I always have something to read.

I started out to be a person on the street, just like everybody else. I didn't start out to be a singer. But I got sort of swept up in this singing thing, and after I got involved in it it got really important to me if I was good or not.

If I look back to when I was 20 and somebody said you'd be president, I would have said no way.