Alan Furst Quotes

Alan Furst

American Author

Born: Feb 20, 1941

Good Me People Time Work You

Related authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald Frederick Douglass Helen Keller Henry David Thoreau Joyce Meyer Mark Twain Og Mandino Zig Ziglar

When I read period material - and it ain't on Google - I am always alert for that one incredible detail. I'll read a whole book and get three words out of it, but they'll be three really good words. Alan Furst

Good Book Words Three Google Incredible Out Detail Good Words Period Read Always Material Am Get Really Whole Alert

I love the combination of the words 'spies' and 'Balkans.' It's like meat and potatoes. Alan Furst

Love Words Spies Potatoes Combination Like Balkans Meat

I look for the dark story, where something secret was done. I read and read and pick up the trail of a true story. I use nothing but true stories. They are so much better than phony ones. Alan Furst

I knew I was a writer; I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't know what to write. Alan Furst

Write Writer Knew Know Wanted

I've always liked lost, old New York. Alan Furst

Old Lost New Liked Always York New York

For John le Carre, it was always who's betraying who: the hall-of-mirrors kind of thing. When you go back to the '30s, it's a case of good vs. evil, and no kidding. When I have a hero who believes France and Britain are on the right side, a reader is not going to question that. Alan Furst

The way I work: I pick a country. I learn the political history - I mean I really learn it; I read until it sinks in. Once I read the political history, I can project and find the clandestine history. And then I people it with the characters. Alan Furst

Work History People Political Country Project Once Way Characters Find Pick Until Learn Read Political History Mean Then Really

Venice has always fascinated me. Every country in Europe then was run by kings and the Vatican except Venice, which was basically run by councils. I've always wondered why. Alan Furst

Me Country Every Run Kings Except Vatican Venice Always Wondered Which Then Europe Fascinated Why Basically

It takes me three months of research and nine months of work to produce a book. When I start writing, I do two pages a day; if I'm gonna do 320, that's 160 days. Alan Furst

Work Day Me Book Writing Three Research Nine Nine Months Months Takes Days Gonna Produce Pages Start Two

I'm basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer. Alan Furst

Side Writer West West Side Upper Basically Jewish

You can't make accommodations in crucial situations and be heroic. Alan Furst

You Heroic Crucial Make Situations

I invented the historical spy novel. Alan Furst

Invented Historical Spy Novel

I have a very serious censorship office inside my head; it censors things that I could tell you that you would never forget, and I don't want to be the person to stick that in your brain. Alan Furst

You Censorship Tell Would Inside Could Never Never Forget Head Stick Brain Very Office Person Forget Want Your Serious Things

I grew up reading genre writers, and to the degree that Eric Ambler and Graham Greene are genre writers, I'm a genre writer. Alan Furst

Degree Reading Writer Writers Genre Eric Up Graham Graham Greene Grew

I read very little contemporary anything. Alan Furst

Contemporary Read Very Anything Little

I don't inflict horrors on readers. In my research, I've uncovered truly terrible documentations of cruelty and torture, but I leave that offstage. I always pull back and let the reader imagine the details. We all know to one degree or another the horrors of war. Alan Furst

I write what I call 'novels of consolation' for people who are bright and sophisticated. Alan Furst

People Consolation Write Sophisticated Call Who Novels Bright

I wrote three mysteries and then a contemporary spy novel that was unbelievably derivative - completely based on 'The Conversation,' the movie with Gene Hackman. Amazingly, the character in the book looks exactly like... Gene Hackman. Alan Furst

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