Quotes from Lawrence Block

I've always essentially been a New Yorker.

When you get older, keeping the private stuff private seems less important.

I've tried writing and the sentences come out fine, but I write a few pages and I don't want to go on.

I never know what I'm going to write next, and when I think I do I usually turn out to be mistaken.

To say I drank my way into marriage isn't much of an exaggeration, and it's none at all to say I drank my way out of it.

I really don't write much anymore, and I'm not uncomfortable with that. I've tried writing and the sentences come out fine, but I write a few pages and I don't want to go on.

Every year there's a few more things I'm not sure of. I've decided that a wide-ranging uncertainty is the mark of the true maturity of man.

The less attention I pay to what people want and the more attention I pay to just writing the book I want to write, the better I do.

It's the easiest thing in the world to know God's will. You just wait and see what happens, and that's it.

People don't get to change things. Things change people once in a while, but people don't change things.

Sometimes it's a dog-eat-dog world and the rest of the time it's the other way around.

Every year there's a few more things I'm not sure of. I've decided that a wide-ranging uncertainty is the mark of the true maturity of man.

There were a hundred reasons why a man will want a drink, but I wanted one now for the most elementary reason of all. I didn't want to feel what I was feeling, and a voice within was telling me that I needed a drink, that I couldn't bear it without it. But that voice is a liar. You can always bear the pain. It'll hurt, it'll burn like acid in an open wound, but you can stand it. And, as long as you can make yourself go on choosing the pain over the relief, you can keep going.

Back then, before it became clear that democracy was best served by a drunken electorate, the bars in New York City were required to close on Election Day.

You know, it was a revelation to me to learn that I don't have to be comfortable. Nowhere is it written that I must be comfortable. I always thought if I felt nervous or anxious or unhappy I had to do something about it. But I learned that's not true. Bad feelings won't kill me. Alcohol will kill me, but my feelings won't.

Life, I'd heard someone say, is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. It seemed to me that it was both at once, even for those of us who don't do much of either.

I don't know about the rest of the country but in New York more people have learned anonymity from rent control than ever discovered it in a twelve-step program.

To say I drank my way into marriage isn't much of an exaggeration, and it's none at all to say I drank my way out of it.

Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for.

Fuck you! I hope you die!" "Everybody Dies," I said. "So fuck you.

If you cannot stand a spoon upright in the cup, then the coffee is too weak.

If you want to write fiction, the best thing you can do is take two aspirins, lie down in a dark room, and wait for the feeling to pass.

She knew how much I needed her. And now she was teasing, playing games. I looked at her and watched her turn into a sex symbol in front of my eyes. She did not look sweet and virginal and lovely anymore. I looked at the very simple summer dress and saw breasts and belly and hips. I looked at her eyes and saw lust as naked as my own.

Something I learned long ago. It is not necessary to know what a person is afraid of. It is enough to know the person is afraid.