Barry Eisler
Barry Eisler
Barry Mark Eisleris a best-selling American novelist. He is the author of two thriller series, the first featuring anti-hero John Rain, a half-Japanese, half-American former soldier turned freelance assassin, and a second featuring black ops soldier Ben Treven. Eisler also writes about politics and language on his blog Heart of the Matter, and at the blogs CHUD, Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, MichaelMoore.com, The Smirking Chimp, and Truthout...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
influenced number poetry
I read pretty eclectically - fiction, non-fiction, and poetry - and I've been inspired and influenced by a number of writers.
breaking few government interest knowledge lock methods select wants
I have a long-standing interest in what I like to think of as 'forbidden knowledge:' methods of unarmed killing, lock picking, breaking and entry, spy stuff, and other things that the government wants only a few select individuals to know.
vehicle whether
Publishing, legacy or indie, is a vehicle, and you can't opine about whether someone has chosen the right vehicle if you don't know where she intends to drive it.
humor inspired job king truth
Stephen King has inspired me with his humor and honesty, and his admonition that the author's job is to tell the truth.
blame others problems
Psychologically, it's always more pleasurable to blame others for our problems than it is to acknowledge our own responsibility.
books brand impulse low maximum position purchases results sales spot support sweet versions
I want to position my books as premium-priced versions on the reasonably-priced scale, if that makes sense, to find a sweet spot between the high-end of what my brand can support and the low end that results in impulse purchases and maximum sales volume.
government involving somehow
When I think of a story, somehow it just always seems to come out involving spooks and spies and government skullduggery.
awful business corruption great japanese politics setting sort spy
There's an awful lot of corruption in Japanese business and politics, corruption of the sort that can make for great setting for a spy story.
arteries begin carry recruit secondary
A heart beset by coronary disease will begin to recruit secondary arteries to carry oxygenated blood.
captures feeling flavor great internet knowledge library limitless process start
The Internet is a limitless library at your fingertips. It's a great place to start with the acquisition of knowledge. My process is to go to a place when I'm writing about it. Nothing captures the essence, feeling and flavor of a place better than when I'm actually there and doing the writing.
average difference level low paranoid
The difference between being a victim and a survivor is often a low level of situational awareness. You can't be a super-spy, watchful and paranoid every day. But I am more watchful than the average American.
communication surveillance-state want
The National Surveillance State doesn't want anyone to be able to communicate without the authorities being able to monitor that communication.
quality want internet
The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isnt really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can be Clarence Darrow, but anyone who wants to be at least competent at argument can do it.
war government tape
When I wrote my eighth thriller, Inside Out, in 2009, the villains were a group of CIA and other government officials who colluded to destroy a series of tapes depicting Americans torturing war-on-terror prisoners.