Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Blockis an American crime writer best known for two long-running New York–set series about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and the gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. Block was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1994...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 June 1938
CountryUnited States of America
lying writing dark
If you want to write fiction, the best thing you can do is take two aspirins, lie down in a dark room, and wait for the feeling to pass.
real flames parking-meters
This church was open and seemingly unattended, and it was a throwback in another way as well. The candles in the little side altars were real ones, actual wax candles that burned with an open flame. Lots of churches have switched over to electrified altars. You drop your quarter in the slot and a flame-shaped bulb goes on and stays on for your quarter's worth of time. It's like a parking meter, and if you stay too long they tow away your soul.
new-york cities democracy
Back then, before it became clear that democracy was best served by a drunken electorate, the bars in New York City were required to close on Election Day.
writing want pages
I’ve tried writing and the sentences come out fine, but I write a few pages and I don’t want to go on.
mice ifs
If you build a better mousetrap, Nature will build a better mouse.
mother easter father
My mother's father was from Sligo, and he used to say it was the hardest thing in the world to find a man alive in Dublin who wasn't in the GPO during the Easter Rising. Twenty brave men marched into that post office, he said, and thirty thousand marched out.
meaningful people littles
As a friend of mine, herself a writer, says, 'People who spend the most meaningful hours of their lives in the exclusive company of imaginary people are apt to be a little strange'
fate use lemonade
If fate sends you a lemon, use it to make lemonade.
new-yorkers
I’ve always essentially been a New Yorker,
noir world way
I wouldn't presume to define noir - if we could define it, we wouldn't need to use a French word for it - but it seems to me it's more a way of looking at the world than what one sees.
order serendipity mind
One aspect of serendipity to bear in mind is that you have to be looking for something in order to find something else.
jobs adversity persistence
I think persistence in the face of adversity is an essential part of a writer’s job description. If you don’t care enough about it to avoid being easily disheartened that way, you really should be doing something else.
sex young booze
Booze and tobacco and lots of sex. It keeps a lad young.
long-ago enough persons
Something I learned long ago. It is not necessary to know what a person is afraid of. It is enough to know the person is afraid.