Joe R. Lansdale Quotes

I have done some short pieces that are not horror.

I'm mostly a novelist these days, but I have written short stories in Fantasy, Science Fiction and horror.

I have some great stories and I will get around to writing a book.

Down the road a bit, I would like to write a couple of stand-alone adult novels, especially in the horror genre. I've got lots of things up my sleeve.

I never really considered writing something that was nonfiction.

I want to write books.

I thought I might write mysteries for the rest of my life.

I have 20 or 30 books completely plotted out in my mind - mysteries, thrillers, horror, romance, science fiction. You name it.

I'd been a thriller reader all my life.

To me, fantasy has always been the genre of escape, science fiction the genre of ideas. So if you can escape and have a little idea as well, maybe you have some kind of a cross-breed between the two.

I've always liked the idea that writing is a form of travel. And I started my writing career as a mystery novelist for adults.

I started writing when I was about 20, 21 maybe.

Most of my short stories are fantasy.

I'm thinking my next book should be set on a tropical island, which will obviously require days, even weeks of meticulous research, but I'm prepared to make that sacrifice. That's just the sort of dedicated writer I am.

I like the eclipses, the synaptic jumps of short stories. The reader has to participate very actively in the experience.

I am trying to write novels for properly clever people, but I also want them to be proper novels that also stick in a person's mind and have an atmosphere about them.

I started writing short stories. I tried writing horror, mystery, science fiction. I joined a little critique group here in town and ran my stories past them. After about three years, I tackled my first novel, Subterranean. It took me 11 months to write.

The only way to be a novelist, to think that you can create something others will give themselves up to for a dozen hours or more, is to have psychotic self-belief.

Most books aren't pure nonfiction or fiction.

I've never really thought of writing books. I've never thought about stories as a part of a collection.

I thought I wanted to be a journalist or a novelist.

As an editor, I read Charlotte Rogan's amazing debut novel, 'The Lifeboat,' when it was still in manuscript. I read it in one night, and I really wanted my company to publish it, but we lost it to another house. It's such a wonderful combination of beautiful writing and suspenseful storytelling.

I wanted to be a writer, but I kind of wanted to be a fiction writer someday, like 20 - 25 years down the line. I never thought I'd write a nonfiction memoir about Iraq.

A modern-day Dickens with a popular voice and a genius for storytelling in any genre, Stephen King has written many wonderful books.

I am also working on a couple of short stories for anthologies. This is new to me and I'm enjoying it.