Leslie Charteris Quotes

I can only say that I myself wrote always as I wished, without a tremendous desire to find the latest thing possible.

An author writes a book, and that's the book at that point. And if the author writes the book again, then somehow something has gone wrong, if you see what I mean.

All writers are mimics, and I'm not interested in picking up somebody else's style or voice.

As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but don't get bogged down in it.

In modern novels, there is no one I want to copy. My style 'is a poor thing, but it is my own.'

If you go for the money first and try to think of what other people want to see, you change your original inspiration and perhaps put out something that's less original and less personal and maybe less satisfying.

I fear becoming formulaic. Some of my books are.

I'm not trying to emulate William Faulkner. I never said I was.

The critics are not writers - they're not a part of the creative process; therefore, they should not influence how I go about doing my next bit of work.

You have to write your own story, your own graph and rhythm.

And I don't want people to think that I make movies based on other films.

As an undergraduate, I took two writing workshops taught by Elizabeth Hardwick. She was certainly a major influence, though more as a writer I greatly admired than as a teacher. As for other writers, I think it's safe to say that my work has been and continues to be influenced to one degree or another by every writer whose work I love and admire.

I am not bothered with whether my characters are conventional or not. Because I am not in this for the designer labels and the autographs.

I would like to be able to write in my own voice.

I wouldn't start writing songs like 'Name' all the time just because I thought that's what people wanted to hear. I'll write a song in the same vein because it's what I want to write.

I don't consciously think of any certain direction when I'm writing. I only try not to be repetitive or redundant.

I read 'The Young Landlords' and felt almost a chemical change. What I realized while reading that book was that I could write in my voice, use my tongue, my language, my style, and write a story.

When directors tell me they want a song like one, I tell them no song should be like another. I don't listen to directors.

It puzzles me when writers say they can't read fiction when they're writing fiction because they don't want to be influenced. I'm totally open to useful influence. I'm praying for it.

After so many years, I don't really think writing has to be absolutely new. No. It has to be good work.

There is certainly no one 'type' of writer who deliberately draws on Shakespeare. In fact, there's a strong argument that everyone writing in the English language is influenced by Shakespeare because, to a considerable degree, he shaped that language.

A baby writer should take inspiration from her predecessors but also find ways to tell her own stories in her own way.

For me, the source material can come from anywhere. It can be a poem, it can be a dream, it can be a movie, as long as the end part of it is interesting - that's what it's about for me.

I don't think you can write from a reactive place. I think you just write the thing you want to write about, and if other people are writing about it, that doesn't really come to bear on what you want to do.