George Pelecanos Quotes

Within reason, I can write what I like and spend as long doing it as is necessary. That is a luxury beyond price.

Nothing beats novel writing because it's complete expression of you. You just control everything. Not even a movie director has that level of control.

Writing is much more satisfying on a certain level than acting ever was. Because you're not interpreting someone else's original idea, you can come up with your own.

When I'm the one who sits down and looks at the blank page and writes it out all the way, then I'll call it my script.

A novelist has a specific poetic license which also applies to his own life.

I've got more creative control when I do music.

I've never actually directed anything I haven't made up. I've never adapted anything.

When I write a novel, every word is mine. I welcome suggestions from my editor, but in the end, I make all the final decisions.

One thing I like about trying to write is that I can possibly write myself a role. Otherwise, you're at the mercy of whatever roles are out there that people are willing to give to you.

I like writing my own material - I'm pretty good at it.

I like writing my own stuff. If a book came along I would maybe do that.

I wrote four novels under the name Amy Silver. The first one was commissioned, and I was given basically the whole plot and the characters. They told me what to do, and I went straight away and did it. After that, I continued, and I was coming up with more my own ideas, although they did steer me.

I've never really felt comfortable co-writing. I usually go at my own speed, you know.

The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.

You can't write ... on the strength of influence. You can only write a good story or a good novel by yourself.

No one can help you write. No one can teach you how to write.

For me, it would be pointless to write a novel that I knew I could complete within a specific length of time. I could do that only by repeating something I had done before, and I've never wanted to do that.

It's hard to find a play that's right for me to do. Rather than waiting around for the right script to come along, I decided to write one myself.

Writing is hard work, but a lot of fun, too. It allows me to live out some of my fantasies.

I'm still auditioning and doing other movie parts, but I really like the developing and the writing. You have more control over your destiny.

Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.

I don't think you can write according to a set of rules and laws; every writer is so different.

When I write a novel, I am God at my own typewriter, and there is nobody in between. But when I write a screenplay, it must be a compromise because there are so many elements which are outside the writer's province.

In my free time, I'd written 'Sammy's Hill' - it had started out as a play. I just did it for myself.

Anything where I get to write a lot of jokes and have a lot of creative control - that's all I want.