Quotes About Fiction

Writing helps me create a different world that I can escape to.

I don't like anything too heavy. Something I can read, you know, lying in bed that takes me to different world.

It's hard for people to differentiate between a character they see on television and a person who plays the character.

Fiction should be about moral dilemmas that are so bloody difficult that the author doesn't know the answer.

So you see, movies are really another dimension.

My characters are based on people I know, but not in a direct way.

I've never actually directed anything I haven't made up. I've never adapted anything.

The things that I'm interested in directing are fiction, because then you're not married to a particular reality.

It is so common to write autobiographical fiction in which your own experience is thinly disguised.

I really dislike elves.

I loved 'District 9.'

I am not an expert on Chinese science fiction. I probably know more than anyone else in the West, but that doesn't actually mean I am an expert.

When I'm writing books, something weird happens; and the result is the books contain a large amount of what you could call 'supernaturalism.' As a writer, I find I need that to explain the world I'm writing about.

Sri Lanka is a part of my background: it's not where I live, but it's what I want to explore. And I find it works very well to explore through fiction.

I do like to explore evil characters in my books.

A crime is like a crack in reality, and it is the author's role to explore those cracks. As a writer, I like to see how they impinge on people.

Several members of my family have, or have had, one form of dementia or another. I really wanted to explore what it might like in fiction, but I didn't know how to start.

My liking for Scandinavian crime fiction led me into exploring literary writers from the same countries.

Expressing political opinion can be a powerful way to establish a character's voice when writing fiction.

Characters are an extension of your imagination.

I'm most interested in people who've lived life in the extreme, which is what draws me to crime fiction.

Facts are not interesting to me.

I never failed at anything in fiction.

Fiction is about small ambition, small failed ambition, small disappointed hope.