Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Some cops I don't like - the corrupt, the brutal.
Many who resort to crime ultimately can't read or write.
Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice.
We crime novelists have a great pulpit. We write about justice and about correcting injustice.
I've always liked police-blotter kind of writing, or the writing of a policeman, right to the point and hardboiled. That's how I see at least the prose elements of scriptwriting.
For a writer, personal freedom is not so important. It is not individual freedom that guarantees the greatness of literature; otherwise, writers in democratic countries would be superior to all others. Some of the greatest writers wrote under dictatorship - Shakespeare, Cervantes.
The P.C. police are out in force at all times... We've reached a point where people are actually afraid to talk about what they want to say.
I know you shouldn't spit in your own soup but I think most crime writing is like TV and doesn't make enormous demands on one's intellect.
Every one of my books is written from the viewpoint of cops, with the exception of my book Killer on the Road, which is written from the viewpoint of a serial killer.
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.