William Lashner Quotations

I write novels with a lawyer as the hero, no matter how oxymoronic that might sound.

People read legal writing differently. When you're at the crux of a legal argument, every step is a step in the argument. The judge will see any holes. If you do that in fiction, it's too long and boring.

A sense of place is very important in writing.

I like to think I'm writing in the tradition of Raymond Chandler, although I don't ape his style.

I'm going to book-and-author dinners, and I'm the author!

In fiction, the reader will make jumps with you. If you can make the reader make that leap with you, it's a thrilling moment for everyone.

When I write legally, I try to write very plain, very vanilla, very clear.

I don't trust novels with points, do you? If a novel is only about a point, the writer should just say it in as few words as possible so we can take it in and go back to watching 'The Bachelor' on television.

I try to write stories that are thrilling and full of mystery and funny all at the same time, stories that raise moral questions but come up with very few moral answers, stories that emotionally touch readers through the characters.

More than anything in this world, I wish I had been born rich. It would have made up for everything. I'd still be ugly, sure, but I'd be rich and ugly. I'd still be weak and dim and tongue-tied with women, but I'd be rich enough for them not to care. I'd no longer be a social misfit, I'd be eccentric. And most of all, I'd no longer be what I was, I'd be something different.

Be careful what you yearn for, because that which you desire most will either complete you or destroy you, and you don't get to choose.

If he ever had a bright idea it would be beginner's luck.