Carl Hiaasen Quotes

The deadlines are much, much longer with books. When I was a reporter, a lot of times I'd come in at 8:30 a.m., get an assignment right away, interview somebody, turn the story in by 9:30, and have the finished story in the paper that landed on my desk by noon.

Journalism: an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.

I don't think, as a journalist, I'd ever get a story written. I'd probably spend five years researching it, and by the time I'd finish it, no one would be interested in it anymore.

I had a column in high school for our school newspaper. I enjoy writing.

I was the editor of the 'News of the World;' I was the editor of the 'Sun' and chief executive.

I began learning the sportswriting business very early in life.

A reporter is always concerned with tomorrow. There's nothing tangible of yesterday. All I can say I've done is agitate the air ten or fifteen minutes and then boom - it's gone.

When you're in the news business, you always expect the unexpected.

You can write a short story in two hours. Two hours a day, you have a novel in a year.

I wrote each book in thirty-five days flat - just to get the darned thing finished.

I'm a journalist - I'm not Robert Caro. I have a day job, and a pretty consuming one - a joyfully consuming one.

There's nothing more exciting than to watch a story break and grow, and to be the first one to present it to the world.

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

I was a news reporter for 16 years, seven of them a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Perhaps the most useful equipment I acquired in that time is a lack of preciousness about the act of writing. A reporter must write. There must be a story. The mot juste unarriving? Tell that to your desk.

It depends on the book and what else is going on during my life, but it usually takes me about six months to write and revise the first draft.

I take a certain pride in having maintained a reputation for fast copy throughout my newspaper career. Fast-breaking stories left my typewriter in a hurry. Not great literature, perhaps, but fast, and usually accurate.

'Library of Souls' is longer than 'Hollow City' by a considerable margin, but this time I was on the right track from the beginning, so I never had to start over. It took about 15 months, all told.

The minimum I need is six months to allow for dithering, procrastination and the research. The research times varies from book to book; some are faster because they're based off resources I have at my disposal.

What could I have possibly learned except the really most important thing, which is that I did not want to work at the 'New York Times'? Beyond that, I learned how a newspaper works.

Find out what happened and put it in the paper

I was not very good at newspaper reporting. I'm just not quick enough, and I always tend to tell things as stories.

Of the 60 movies I wrote, more than half were written in two weeks or less.

I say to people, 'Do you have any idea how hard it is to do that, to write 7,000 words in 10 hours or 12 hours for the front page of the 'New York Times' and to know that they trust you so much that that it's going to lead the paper?' It's hard. I mean, it's a feat.

Many writers learned their craft and work ethic at a newspaper. I benefited from that.

The best bit of novel writing is being allowed to write exactly what you want at the speed that you want, and to include as many different people and places and times as you want, working with pretty much only one person, the editor, whose job it is to get it in good shape for publication.