Mark Billingham Quotes

I think Melbourne is by far and away the most interesting place in Australia, and I thought if I ever wrote a novel or crime novel of any kind, I had to set it here.

When I set out to write crime fiction, I didn't think to myself, 'I'm going to model myself on Agatha Christie' or 'I am going to be a crime writer in the Christie tradition'.

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 think every writer of detective fiction writing today has been influenced by Mr. Parker. I'm of a generation that followed Robert Parker, and it was impossible to read the genre and not be influenced by him.

I suppose most crime writing is urban. There's not a lot... certainly not in Australia, people don't often set books in the countryside.

I adore Kate Atkinson, her literary as well as her crime output.

My literary heroes all wrote about L.A.: Joseph Wambaugh, Ross Macdonald, and Raymond Chandler were the three writers that made me want to be a writer.

I hate people thinking their city is unique, but there is a certain aura about Los Angeles; it's not necessarily a beautiful thing, but it's part of Harry Bosch.

I'd always wanted to write crime fiction. I loved Nancy Drew.

Liverpool and London are two places I looked upon as home.

I grew up under the spell of London. Illustrator Kerry Lee's evocative 1950 wall map of the city hung above our breakfast table at home in Canada. Over my corn flakes, I traced the capital's high roads and medieval alleys.

Pete Moffat writes crime conspiracy thrillers so beautifully. He goes places other people wouldn't; he is fearless.

I was heavily into John D. MacDonald.

Britain proves to be an ideal setting for many a medieval-minded crime novelist, regardless of century.

I absolutely adore classic crime and read a huge amount as a teen - Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Sherlock Holmes, Josephine Tey, and many more.

Crime novels, it has been said, show the human psyche under pressure.

I was reading Agatha Christie as a little boy.

Walter Mosley was not the first black crime writer, nor was he the first to fuse genre conventions with larger social concerns. But when 'Devil in a Blue Dress' introduced the Los Angeles-based private detective Easy Rawlins nearly 20 years ago, it was clear the author set out to stretch the boundaries of the mystery and thriller framework.

When I was working on a Victorian-era novel, to get in the mood, I read several historical novels set in approximately the same period and place, and really enjoyed the detective novels of John Dickson Carr.

At first I imagined I'd write detective novels, because I loved 'Nancy Drew.'

I appreciate my city very much. When I go to America and Europe, and I tell everyone I'm from London, I'm proud.

Occasionally, I have written about stories related to crime, but I have never attempted a traditional detective story. So I want to write a true detective story.

Sometimes I think 'The Wire' said it all, and I might as well not write any more crime novels.

For those who pass it without entering, the city is one thing; it is another for those who are trapped by it and never leave. There is the city where you arrive for the first time; and there is another city which you leave never to return. Each deserves a different name; perhaps I have already spoken of Irene under other names; perhaps I have spoken only of Irene.

Tony Black is the Tom Waits of Crime Fiction, yes, that good.