The difference is this: If you write a good book, it’ll get published. If you have a great screenplay, there is no guarantee. – John Sandford
These characters are not spontaneous creations. They are engineered down to the last nut and bolt. – John Sandford
With most of my books, I’ll actually go out and look at the setting. If you describe things carefully, it kind of makes the scene pop. – John Sandford
When I was reporting crime… I never had the sense of clockwork conspiracies or some kind of imposing order of evil. What I sensed was things just sort of falling apart. – John Sandford
Just go outside and look at something and write it down and you’ll find it is a very nice piece of writing. – John Sandford
Women just make interesting characters, especially when you’re working against cliches. – John Sandford
When you’re building a character, or at least when I’m building a character, you start saying, ‘How am I going to make people like him?’ – John Sandford
If you do outline, you have to be aware of the problems that that kind of thing can cause. – John Sandford
They don’t have a lot of crime in the countryside other than theft. But every once in a while, things turn ugly, and when they turn ugly, they turn very ugly. – John Sandford
I spend a lot of time wandering around the countryside just looking at people, seeing how everything fits together. – John Sandford
There’s something about marriage that is not as intensely romantic or interesting as a couple’s first meeting. – John Sandford
That’s my sense of how crime works: that it’s not any kind of calculated evil driven by the devil, but just control disintegrating. – John Sandford
Well, I am becoming doddering and old but I have – I’m writing two books a year now. It’s like 220,000 words or something like finished, and, honest to God, I can’t do that. I really do need the help of, you know, other people working with me. – John Sandford
Books set in Brooklyn and L.A. are often about people who are rootless, who want to go somewhere else. In the Midwest, though, the stories are about people who want to stay where they are – who like where they are. – John Sandford
I once paddled a canoe the length of the Mississippi River all the way from Itasca to New Orleans. – John Sandford
I’ve always been sort of interested in the rural countryside. Things happen out there that are very strange to city dwellers. – John Sandford
A lot of journalists are talented enough to write a mystery novel, and I would say that most of the top-end mystery writers actually started out as reporters. But there is more to it than just the writing; there’s a learning process, and most journalists aren’t willing to do it. – John Sandford
Most people who are trying to write kind of sit in their basements and pull it out of their imaginations. – John Sandford
I’m just trying to normalize my life and get ready for the last 20 years or whatever I’ve got. It’s a lot to take care of. – John Sandford
