Martin Cruz Smith
I've got a book of poetry by the bed, one of these big collections that goes back to the Greeks and Romans.Collection: Poetry
As a novelist, I tell stories and people give me money. Then financial planners tell me stories and I give them money.Collection: Finance
Of course the biggest mafia in Russia has always been the government; in Soviet times, the Communist Party, and now a circle of former KGB and FSB.Collection: Government
If you take the contempt some Americans have for yuppies and multiply it by 10 you might come close to understanding their attitude towards the City, as they call it - London, the people of the south.Collection: Attitude
Kali is the goddess of destruction, the Clawed Hands, the Blood Drinker... And that's one side of her, as it is for any god. If you knew her for thousands of years you'd know she could be all colors. The sky is black at night, but if your eyes were good enough, they could see the different lights of a million stars. Death is part of her because death is part of life.Collection: Stars
I used to be treated like an idiot, now I'm treated like an idiot savant.Collection: Writing
Because normal human activity is worse for nature than the greatest nuclear accident in history.Collection: Nuclear
Happiness is the maximum agreement of reality and desire.Collection: Reality
Then there was the whole concept of coal mining, which is a culture unto itself, the most dangerous occupation in the world, and which draws and develops a certain kind of man.Collection: Men
You have to be an outsider to write.Collection: Writing
Mystery books. I must read a hundred a year. . . I just wish some of them were harder to figure out.Collection: Book
The great thing about being a writer is that you are always recreating yourself.Collection: Great Things
It was like passing the scene of a highway accident and being relieved to learn that nobody had been seriously injured.Collection: Writing
I hate to be categorized.Collection: Hate
I'm very aware when I'm speaking to the English of how flat my Mid-Atlantic American voice is.Collection: Talking
The most beautiful women in the world were African.Collection: Beautiful
I have another Russian idea, too, with a place and a period, so I guess I have enough to keep me busy for quite some time, especially considering that I'm such a slow writer.Collection: Ideas
To capture the human cost of fallen empire with all its horror and absurdity, Sheets offers the right combination: the political insight of a top reporter and the power of a novelist.Collection: Political
The research is the most interesting part… That’s how I work. I go some place and I walk it and I talk to people until I find what I’ve come for. Or not. Fortunately, I tend to find what I’m after.Collection: People
High Concept means a book or a film whose core idea can be stated in a single sentence, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are twins. Or, Arnold is pregnant.Collection: Book