James Patterson quotes - page 16

In my office in Florida I have, I think, 30 manuscript piles around the room. Some are screenplays or comic books or graphic novels. Some are almost done. Some I'm rewriting. If I'm working with a co-writer, they'll usually write the first draft. And then I write subsequent drafts. (James Patterson)
What I'm really addicted to is getting people to understand that if their kids aren't competent readers coming out of middle school, it's really going to be hard for them in high school.
James Patterson
My favorite books are actually very complicated - 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', 'Ulysses'.
James Patterson
I don't get a chance to be funny with the thrillers. I like to be funny, and I think I am really funny. So with 'Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life', it was fun to let loose.
James Patterson
I never read detective novels. I started out in graduate school writing a more serious book. Right around that time I read 'The Day of the Jackal' and 'The Exorcist'. I hadn't read a lot of commercial fiction, and I liked them.
James Patterson
I'm big on having a blistering pace. That's one of the hallmarks of what I do, and that's not easy. I never blow up cars and things like that, so it's something else that keeps the suspense flowing. I try not to write a chapter that isn't going to turn on the movie projector in your head.
James Patterson
I'm not a writer's writer. I'm not a craftsman. I could be, and that would be a one-book-a-year operation.
James Patterson
I don't smile as much as I should, even though I smile inside a lot.
James Patterson
I don't think of myself as a writer.
James Patterson
I guess I write four or five hours a day, but I do it seven days a week. It's very disciplined, yes, but it's joy for me.
James Patterson
I was always a good student, but I didn't read that much until I was 18 and I was working my way through college. (James Patterson)
I write larger than life. It's what I do.
James Patterson
One of the nice things about books as opposed to television and movies to some extent is it's not a passive entertainment. People really do get involved, and they do create, and they do have their own visions of what different characters look like and what should happen. It's great - it means their brains are working.
James Patterson
A lot of times you get people writing wonderful sentences and paragraphs, and they fall in love with their prose style, but the stories really aren't that terrific.
James Patterson
Ultimately, a great thriller is a roller coaster ride. I like to think that's a promise I have never failed to keep, and one that I'd say has served my books well.
James Patterson