Karin Slaughter Quotations

Reading develops cognitive skills. It trains our minds to think critically and to question what you are told. This is why dictators censor or ban books. It's why it was illegal to teach slaves to read. It's why girls in developing countries have acid thrown in their faces when they walk to school.

I'm extremely introverted. I used to think it was shyness, but I got over that, so it must be door No. 2. It's still hard for me to be away from home much, and I have to make sure I get lots of time alone in my room when I'm touring.

I'm really boring. I get up early. I go to bed early. I don't smoke or drink. I mean, I'll eat a cupcake. I'm just not a crazy, stay-out-all-night sort of person. I love writing.

I think being a woman and writing frankly about violence has gotten me some attention, and as someone who wants people to read my books, I can't complain about that attention, but it does puzzle me that this is something reviewers focus on.

I never felt isolated; I just liked being alone. I think that some people are good at being alone, and some people arent, and as a child, I really liked it.

Being a Southerner, I'm interested in sex, violence, religion and all the things that make life interesting.

I am hard-pressed to find a successful writer who doesn't have a similar story to mine - transformation through the public library.

I have a few unusual fans, as you can imagine, so I try to protect the privacy of my home life.

Prior to the Civil War, most libraries were either privately owned or housed in universities or churches.

As voters and taxpayers, we must demand that our local governments properly prioritize libraries. As citizens, we must invest in our library down the street so that the generations served by that library grow up to be adults who contribute not just to their local communities but to the world.

Good writers know that crime is an entre into telling a greater story about character. Good crime writing holds up a mirror to the readers and reflects in a darker light the world in which they live.

It's hard because people often don't recognise shyness; they think it's just someone being rude. I have had to work to overcome that, especially if I'm meeting my readers at author events, because I don't want them to think I'm snooty or rude.

My typical morning involves some time on the treadmill, but obviously I skip that a lot. Mostly, I wake up, check my email, then get to work on the various interviews and questions and phone calls that come with being an author.

When you read a book, you are letting another person distract your thoughts and work your emotions. If they are adept, there's nothing better than turning off and getting lost.

I love puns. I've been known to turn the car around just to take advantage of a good pun situation. It really is the highest form of humor.

I taped the autopsy photos from Marilyn Monroe's death to my lunch box in fifth grade, and I would write stories in which someone inevitably died.

As a Southerner, I love obstacles for my characters.

Books are not like albums, where you can simply download and enjoy your favorite chapter and ignore the rest.

Even Gone With the Wind had a shocking, cold-blooded murder.

Everybody had something horrible happen to them at one time or another in their life.

Feminism has been so co-opted, but the fact is, feminism benefits men as well.

I certainly went to high school with some mean girls, and I would not wish that hell on anybody.

I could type in a closet and be fine. It's just a matter of cocooning myself. Just me and the story.

I have a lot of men who will say to me, 'I don't read books by women, but I like you.'

I know the cadence of the language and the voice of Atlanta because I've lived here for so long.

I paid for my name a lot when I was growing up because other kids teased me.

When I was little, my grandmother would take me to church with her, and she would introduce me to people.

When I'm on a good go, I can do 12, 13 hours of writing.

Like every Southern writer, I thought that I needed to write the next 'Gone With the Wind.'

My job isn't to preach to people, it's to entertain them. I like letting the characters speak for themselves.

My dad believed in scaring us as we were growing up. Scaring the boys who wanted to date us more.

I didn't want to spend the next thirty years writing about bad things happening in the same small town - not least of all because people would begin to wonder why anyone still lives there!

If I wasn't a writer, I would probably be a watchmaker. I like putting puzzles together, and that is what a watch is, figuring out how all the gears and everything else works together. I'm patient and good at focusing on a single task.

I always say 'thriller;' if they see you're a woman - and you're a blond woman - people assume you're writing about cats and romances where somebody has died.

I think that characters who are nice all the time and who you sympathize with can get really boring.

I think a lot of people are curious about what makes people do what they do, and I guess my curiosity isn't hidden in any way.

I think crime fiction is a great way to talk about social issues, whether 'To Kill A Mockingbird' or 'The Lovely Bones;' violence is a way to open up that information you want to get out to the reader.

My books are never about the crimes. They are about how the characters react to the crimes.

When I was growing up, my stepmother's sister was the chief detective in one of the adjoining towns, so she piqued my interest in crime.

Books give us insight into other people, other cultures. They make us laugh. They make us think. If they are really good, they make us believe that we are better for having read them. You don't read a book - you experience it. Every story opens up a new world.

Flannery O'Connor was a revelation for me. When I read her, I was very young, and I didn't understand what she was doing. I didn't see any of the Catholicism or any of the social stuff.

I set the goal of getting a book contract by age thirty.

I've always been interested in violence, even as a teenager. I loved 'Helter Skelter' and books like that.

Pushing the boundaries of polite society does not just fall under the purview of crime fiction authors.

People forget that writers start off being readers. We all love it when we find a terrific read, and we want to let people know about it.

The most enduring stories in literature generally have some kind of crime at their center, whether it's the bloody butchery of 'Hamlet,' the lecherous misanthropes of Dickens or the lone gunman from 'The Great Gatsby.'

It sounds pretentious to say I 'divide' my time, but when I am home, that usually means my house in Atlanta or my cabin in the North Georgia Mountains. The latter is where I do the majority of my writing.

If you wear them outside, they stop being pyjamas. I wear mine to the mail box, which is right in front of my house - that's my limit. Anything else is wrong.

I read extensively about serial killers and all sorts of things people get up to.

I read about violent things. I think what I get out of that is entertainment by learning about different things, and reading the genre and getting an understanding of motivations. But at the end of the day, it's still a book, and I can walk away.

I busted my chin open trying to be Evel Knievel on my bike. When it happened, you could see straight through to the bone, I thought my dad was going to pass out. It left a scar that I still have now.

I can clearly trace my passion for reading back to the Jonesboro, Georgia, library, where, for the first time in my life, I had access to what seemed like an unlimited supply of books.

Ultimately, I'm in control of what's going on in the books, so I can back off, if it's scaring me too much.

I'm not somebody who believes in evil.

I think that people do things for a reason - that we have mental illness, that we have genetic wiring that can get triggered by certain environmental factors.

I'm sold as a literary writer in Holland; I'm sold as crime fiction in England. I think of it as just literature.

A lot of novels use crime as a stepping stone to talk about greater issues. So I just think of myself as a writer.

When a woman creates an unlikable character, a lot of people think it's a mistake.

I grew up reading crime fiction and, especially in the '80s, women were just there to be saved or screwed.

I can’t—” Lena repeated. “I can’t do it. I can’t live without him.” Sara gently pulled her hand away from Jared’s. She smoothed down the sheet, tucked it in close around his side. She looked at Lena—really looked at her straight in the eye. “Good,” Sara told her. “Now you know how it feels.

I've always been drawn to historical fiction.

Like every Southern writer, I thought that I needed to write the next Gone With the Wind.

Talking of the local Sheriff, Jake Valentine, tall and skinny and his wife Myra, "She was a short woman, maybe five feet tall in her socks, the top of her head not quite reaching Jake's chest. What she lacked in height she made up for in girth. Jeffrey guessed she was at least a hundred pounds overweight. Standing side by side, the Valentines looked like the living embodiment of the number ten.

Long Gone is the type of book that should come with a warning. It’s a compulsively readable, highly addictive story. The ending will leave you breathless.

Usually, guys, when something bad happens, they punish someone else.

Alafair Burke understands the criminal mind. Long Gone is both an education and an entertainment of the first order. This is a very clever and very smart novel by a very clever and smart writer. The dialogue crackles, the plot is intriguing, and the pacing is perfect.

Meg Gardiner is one of my favorite authors. She always delivers a terrific read. Phantom Instinct should go to the top of your 'to-be-read' pile.

You can only make decisions with the information you have at the time

People just make stupid mistakes. And they keep making them and keep making them, and suddenly they can't dig themselves out.

sexual predators were like cockroaches. For every one you saw, there were twenty more hiding behind the walls.

Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.

[On men:] ... you never know what they're like until you get them home and take them out of their packages.

A lot of men just don't read. They don't read fiction at all.

Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.

I think a lot of guys who are on the internet a lot, they're kind of anesthetized to some of the violent language and all that because they see it all the time.

Being a Southerner, Im interested in sex, violence, religion and all the things that make life interesting.

If you're a smart guy, you should really try to find out what women are thinking. I mean, we are 51 percent of the population.

You didn't realize what was passing you by until you slowed down a little bit to get a better look.

Keeping libraries open, giving access to all children to all books is vital to our nation's sovereignty.

You can take my heart, but I can't let you take my dog.