Donna Leon
Donna Leon
Donna Leonis the American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice, Italy and featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guido Brunetti...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth29 September 1942
CountryUnited States of America
people favors asks
favors are always for ourselves. Especially when we ask for things for other people.
people way bars
Sit around the bars, talked to people, ate in the restaurants, and chatted with the old ladies on the street. Fishermen are pretty much that way.
people want advantage
And I don't want to live anywhere where I am famous. It makes me very, very uncomfortable, because it conveys an advantage over people, and I don't like that.
lying people fallen-world
This is a fallen world. People lie, the truth gets distorted, and that's the way it is. What's for dinner ?
people lazy trying
Italians know about human nature - they understand human nature perhaps better than anyone else does. They know that people are weak and greedy and lazy and dishonest and they just try to make the best of it; to work around it.
couple deaths five last maybe six
There has been a lot of suspicious, maybe hazing, deaths in the last couple of years-in the last five or six years.
american-author beats happens might
I have no memory for what happens in what books. I don't know when I might remember a scene, but beats me what book it's in because there are 14 of them now.
appears artistic dinner however knew man musical shares similar spend tastes
The character I created, 'Commissario Brunetti,' who appears in all my books, shares similar reading, artistic and musical tastes with me. Subconsciously, I knew that if I was to spend however long it would take to write this book with him, this man would have to be someone I'd like to have dinner with.
music vocal
I listen to Handel's vocal music, almost exclusively.
admire beyond clue dickens sure women
I admire Dickens beyond words. He is one of the greatest plotters of all times. Didn't have a clue about women, but he sure could plot.
less state suspicion tend
Italians tend to be less rigidly moral and law-abiding than do Anglo-Saxons. They also have a profound suspicion of the state and most of its agencies.
baroque comments festivals involved music opera
I'm involved with a baroque opera company here in Italy. I write some of their booklet material, comments on operas. I also write for some baroque opera festivals because this music is my real passion.
almost best came friendship lucky remain time venice
I came to Venice for the first time in 1968 and was lucky enough to make the acquaintanceship, and then the friendship, of two Venetians, Roberta and Franco, who remain my best friends here after almost 50 years.
writing kissing letters
The Germans and Austrians are very polite, the Swiss are very reserved and the Spanish usually kiss me. The Brits write me letters.