Patricia Cornwell Quotes

What is overriding that and most important is that readers generally are interested in a good character. They might be more comfortable with Harry because they think they know him, but they always seem willing to give somebody new a chance.

You want to feel that your reader does identify with the characters so that there's a real entry into the story - that some quality speaks to the individual.

The easiest way for readers to connect with characters and feel sympathy is to make the character entertaining, sympathetic and likeable.

With the crime novels, it's delightful to have protagonists I can revisit in book after book. It's like having a fictitious family.

People like the Bosch books because they like Harry Bosch, not because the plots are fantastic.

You have to be involved and relate to the characters in order to make a film that is true emotionally.

British crime stories tend to be very internal, psychological, claustrophobic, very limited in terms of geography.

If there is any secret to my success, I think it's that my characters are very real to me. I feel everything they feel, and therefore I think my readers care about them.

As a writer, you have to realize that people want to like the characters, so you have to be careful to keep them involved.

Whenever you have two characters in a book, whether it's a novel or nonfiction, you run the risk that the reader is going to like one more than the other. They're going to read one chapter and say, 'I can't wait to get back to the other guy.'

You have to find something there that relates to the characters and reality on some level.

There are characters that become more popular as we fall in love with them.

I don't think the Barbara Vines are mysteries in any sense. The Barbara Vine is much more slowly paced. It is a much more in-depth, searching sort of book; it doesn't necessarily have a murder in it.

If the characters are compelling, readers will follow anywhere.

I am a firm believer that a good plot makes for a fun enough read, but it's not what binds us. If we don't care about the characters, we won't care - not in a lasting way - about what's happening to them.

For many years, I read mystery novels for relaxation. But my tastes were too narrow - and, having read all of Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, I discovered that the implausibility and the thinness of the people distracted me unduly from the plot.

The thriller is the most popular literary genre of the 20th century.

My crime novels are highly structured. I never start out with a dead body. I start with an impossible scenario. Opening questions should be mysterious, weird, intriguing, and contain the seeds of the solution. The structure has to be meticulous - I'm a structure freak.

I have favorite authors from a lifetime of reading, so there are some I'll automatically read every time they have a new novel. Included in them: Robert Goddard, Jeffery Deaver, Sophie Kinsella, Katherine Neville, Greg Isle, Laurie King, Lee Child, Lisa Tucker, Susan Howatch, Paul Auster. Barry Eisler, David Hewson, Tracy Chevalier.

People seem to need a likable protagonist more than ever.

I loved Sherlock Holmes as a kid, but I remember being disappointed when he'd come up with these simple explanations for these complex mysteries.

I think it's pretty apparent who my favorites are because I keep coming back to them. At the top of that list would be Harry Bosch, who's now going on 20 years of literary life. I still like him the best because there's still a lot to say about him.

I think there has to be an empathic strike between the reader and the protagonist. There has to be something said or known that connects the reader to this person you're going to ride through the story with.

I firmly believe that there is no better thriller writer than Harlan Coben.

I try to create characters people want to sit with, even if nothing is happening.