Quotes from George Pelecanos

I owned a '70 Camaro for many years, which I loved.

Where I live, there are a lot of businesses owned by Ethiopians and Eritreans. They're the new immigrants, the new Greeks - what my people did. The next generation of these people will probably be college graduates. That's how it works, right there in front of your eyes.

I even dream about writing. I'm talking seeing words across the page, whole paragraphs.

My senior year at College Park, University of Maryland, I took an elective class in crime fiction taught by Charles C. Mish. He turned me on in a big way to reading and books. I was lucky to have a teacher who changed the course of my life.

As far as I'm concerned, the voices of Washington, black Washington, it's poetry, man. There's beauty in it.

I'm a very sentimental, emotional person.

For many years, I did ride-alongs with patrol cops, which is any citizen's right.

I find 'True Grit' to be one of the very best American novels: It is a rousing adventure story and deeply perceptive about the makeup of the American character.

Movies were the biggest influence on me when I was a kid.

I am on my bike daily, and most of the locations, warehouses and specific residences from 'The Cut' were found while I was riding.

My father's diner, the Jefferson Coffee Shop, was a simple, 27-seat affair in Washington D.C., open for breakfast and lunch - coffee and eggs in the morning, cold cuts and burgers in the afternoon.

I'm a strong believer in second chances.

I really feel like people who want to change things need to go out and change it themselves and not look to politicians to do that.

I do miss the Chocolate City of my youth.

A lot of guys are walking around with a lot simmering beneath the surface, and sometimes it explodes.

It would probably surprise people how prevalent reading is in institutions - and the degree to which some states discourage reading by instituting draconian rules and laws that try to limit and outright roadblock books in prisons.

The Next Right Thing has humanity, humor, and insight to burn. Author Dan Barden takes the clay of the California hard-boiled novel and shapes it into something new.

Every day I'm not working or writing is a wasted day to me.

When I was a teenager, I thought if any of my friends or people at school see me reading a book, they're gonna think I'm weak. So I didn't even do it in private. Then I grew up, got into college, and the teachers turned me on to books, and I got hooked.

I collect and read as many books about music and film as I do fiction.

My dad used to call me 'the dreamer.' He was right.

I like fiction set in the South, and I'm a fan of literary westerns.

I've been working in adult prisons and juvenile prisons for some time.

I'm forever grateful to have had the opportunity to prove myself to my dad. After I took over the diner, the look in my father's eyes went from disappointment to respect.