Top George Pelecanos Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

George Pelecanos Biography

George Pelecanos

George P. Pelecanos (born 18 Feb 1957) is an American author. Many of his 20 books are in the genre of detective fiction and set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He is also a film and television producer and a television writer. He worked extensively on the HBO series The Wire, and was a writer on Treme.

Read about George Pelecanos in Wikipedia

Random Authors

George Pelecanos Quotes

The most popular American fiction seems to be about successful people who win, and good crime fiction typically does not explore that world. But honestly, if all crime fiction was quality fiction, it would be taken more seriously.

Fiction, Successful, Taken, Winning, World

If the storytellers told it true, all stories would end in death.

Death, Ends, Stories, Storyteller, Storytellers, True

I'm a better writer now because I've worked very hard at getting better. My long-range goal will always be to write better books.

Book, Books, Goal, Long, Write, Writing

The worst kind of novel is one that blames other people for the racial problem in order to make the reader feel good about himself. As if it's only rich white people or Republicans or conservatives who have this disease.

Good, Order, People, Republicans, White

Any time you have poverty, joblessness, sub-par public schools, and a lack of opportunity, you're going to have a high rate of crime.

Crime, Opportunity, Poverty, School, Schools

I can write any kind of novel I want, any time, and sell it, but there's not that many people watching it. Even a low-rated TV show is a couple million more people than read my books. You want to be read, in essence. If you're a television writer, you're a writer and you want people to read your stuff. You're still reaching a bigger audience, that way. That's a philosophical way to look at it.

Book, Couple, Novel, Philosophical, Sell

What's more interesting are the dynamics between people that involve hypocrisy or ignoring each other. That's what I want to write about. I like to make people uncomfortable because it's something we should be uncomfortable about.

Ignoring, Interesting, Like, People, Writing

I'm proud to be a crime novelist. What I've chosen is the best way to convey the questions I'm trying to raise.

Chosen, Novelists, Proud, Raise, Trying

Things seem to be at a boiling point all the time. In fact, it has been that way my whole life. I find it interesting, and I like the fact that the emotions are in your face all the time. You always know where you stand. None of that "we don't have any racial problems here" attitude that you get, say, up north. All of this is rich fodder for a crime novelist.

Attitude, Fodder, Interesting, Point, Rich, Up North

There's a school of thought that says if you legalize drugs it will solve the problem. We're all good liberals, we said let's do it and see what happens. We wanted to be honest about it. So in our brainstorming sessions we'd say, what if? The finding was that all the negative things came out also. The answer is that we didn't believe in the full legalization of drugs. But we don't believe in the criminalization of drugs, either.

Believe, Drug, Happens, Legalize, School, See

Soon it began to drizzle for the second time that night. The drops grew heavier and became visible in the headlights of the cars. It was said by some of the police on the scene that God was crying for the girl in the garden. To others, it was only rain. (final lines)

Girl, Heavier, Night, Rain, Visible

We get schooled by the people around us, and it stays inside us deep.

Deep, People, Schooled, Stays

Top-shelf fiction, a Crown Royal ride into the heart of Night and New York. Con Lehane's work is reminiscent of the best of Lawrence Block, which is to say that this is very good stuff, indeed.

Block, Crown, Heart, New York, Say

The reason some crime writers have a chip on their shoulder about the label is because their good books are shelved beside books about nuns and birdwatchers and cats who solve crimes. Overseas, my books are reviewed alongside those of authors like Robert Stone and Don DeLillo, and I have to live and die by that comparison. They don't ghettoize crime writers in other countries, and of course they shouldn't.

Alongside, Book, Cat, Country, Shelved, Stone

We remember when women were spoken of differently. I don't mean that we didn't speak of women sexually - that happened. It was never this crude: there wasn't the connotations, the violence. I think there's got to be a relationship between the coarsening of the culture, of which pornography was a piece of the puzzle.

Crude, Culture, Mean, Piece, Puzzle, Thinking

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.

Barden, California, Clay, Humanity, Humor, Right

The crime part is the engine that moves the narrative and allows me to write the other things I want to write about.

Allows, Engine, Moving, Want, Write, Writing