Alan Furst Quotes

• Politicians were like talking dogs in a circus: the fact that they existed was uncommonly interesting, but no sane person would actually believe what they said

  Alan Furst

  Dog, Believe, Talking

  Alan Furst (2008). “Dark Star: A Novel”, p.35, Random House

  48 Copy quote

• You can't make accommodations in crucial situations and be heroic.

  Alan Furst

  Heroic, Accommodations, Situation

  14 Copy quote

• If you can live in Paris, maybe you should.

  Alan Furst

  Paris, Should, Ifs

  7 Copy quote

• Wherever God has planted you, you must know how to flower - translated from a French saying

  Alan Furst

  Flower, Know How, Knows

  8 Copy quote

• The best Paris I know now is in my head.

  Alan Furst

  Paris, Knows

  7 Copy quote

• Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.

  Alan Furst

  Writing, Character

  "Alan Furst travels through the spy-ridden 'Shadows' of Europe" by Adam Dunn, www.cnn.com. January 19, 2001.

  6 Copy quote

• If you're a writer, you're always working.

  Alan Furst

  Always Working, Ifs

  6 Copy quote

• Whether you like it or not, Paris is the beating heart of Western civilisation. It's where it all began and ended.

  Alan Furst

  Heart, Paris, You Like It

  16 Copy quote

• I have a very serious censorship office inside my head; it censors things that I could tell you that you would never forget, and I don't want to be the person to stick that in your brain.

  Alan Furst

  Office, Brain, Want

  8 Copy quote

• Live today, for tomorrow we die.

  Alan Furst

  Live For Today, Today, Tomorrow

  Alan Furst (2008). “Night Soldiers: A Novel”, p.105, Random House

  7 Copy quote

• I don't just want my books to be about the '30s and '40s. I want them to read as if they had been written then. I think of them as '40s novels, written in the conservative narrative past.

  Alan Furst

  Book, Past, Thinking

  5 Copy quote

• Good people don't spend their time being good. Good people want to spend their time mowing the lawn and playing with the dog. But bad people spend all their time being bad. It is all they think about.

  Alan Furst

  Dog, Thinking, People

  7 Copy quote

• One is what one has the nerve to pretend to be.

  Alan Furst

  Nerves

  Alan Furst (2007). “The World at Night: A Novel”, p.9, Random House

  6 Copy quote

• I invented the historical spy novel.

  Alan Furst

  Historical, Spy, Novel

  5 Copy quote

• It takes me three months of research and nine months of work to produce a book. When I start writing, I do two pages a day; if I'm gonna do 320, that's 160 days.

  Alan Furst

  Book, Writing, Two

  5 Copy quote

• I expect that my readers have been to Europe, I expect them to have some feeling for a foreign language, I expect them to have read books - there are a lot of people like that! That's my audience.

  Alan Furst

  Book, Europe, People

  5 Copy quote

• I grew up reading genre writers, and to the degree that Eric Ambler and Graham Greene are genre writers, I'm a genre writer.

  Alan Furst

  Reading, Degrees, Eric

  "Spy novelist Alan Furst: 'I love the gray areas'" by Todd Leopold, www.cnn.com. December 4, 2001.

  5 Copy quote

• The printing presses of the state treasuries cranked out reams of paper currency- showing wise kinds and blissful martyrs- while bankers wept and peasants starved.

  Alan Furst

  Wise, Bankers, Paper

  Alan Furst (2008). “Night Soldiers: A Novel”, p.7, Random House

  5 Copy quote

• And, with much of Europe occupied by Nazi Germany, and Mussolini's armies in Albania, on the Greek frontier, one wasn't sure what came next. So, don't trust the telephone. Or the newspapers. Or the radio. Or tomorrow.

  Alan Furst

  Army, Europe, Greek

  Alan Furst (2010). “Spies of the Balkans: A Novel”, p.4, Random House

  7 Copy quote

• I don't inflict horrors on readers.

  Alan Furst

  Horror, Reader

  4 Copy quote

• You write a lot of books; you hope you get better.

  Alan Furst

  Book, Writing, Get Better

  5 Copy quote

• I don't really write plots. I use history as the engine that drives everything.

  Alan Furst

  Writing, Plot, Use

  6 Copy quote

• I'm basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer.

  Alan Furst

  West, Sides, West Side

  4 Copy quote

• I read very little contemporary anything.

  Alan Furst

  Littles, Contemporary

  "Spy novelist Alan Furst: 'I love the gray areas'" by Todd Leopold, www.cnn.com. December 4, 2001.

  5 Copy quote

• My novels are about the European reality, not about chases. You want chases, get somebody else's books.

  Alan Furst

  Book, Reality, Want

  4 Copy quote

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