Author Birthday – 8 October – Terry Hayes

Happy Birthday, Terry Hayes, born on 8 October 1951.

Terry Hayes Quotes

1. I don’t enjoy the writing process itself… it’s a confrontation with personal shortcomings, but I love the sense of achievement after a story is told. (Terry Hayes’ Writing Routine)
2. Whenever you’re struggling – with the beginning, middle, or end – it’s because you don’t have fundamental conflict, and you haven’t set up the characters correctly so they are involved in a real battle.
3. Whenever anything goes pear-shaped or doesn’t appear to have any pace or interest to it, it’s generally because the characters are in agreement over something rather than in dispute. That’s certainly how drama works and that’s generally what we try to do in books – we tend to try and make things dramatic, and that comes from people being in conflict.
4. When it goes pear-shaped it’s not something to worry about – it’s something to be grateful for, because you’re seeing the symptoms of something being very wrong.
5. Don’t smoke. Give up smoking. If you’re sitting there and you’re writing – and this is from an ex-smoker – there is nothing so attractive as ‘I’ll just pause for a cigarette’, and before you know it you’re smoking sixty a day. Get a bike, do some form of exercise. It is the world’s most sedentary job, and you know, I don’t mind suffering for my art but I’m damned if I ever end up dying for it!
6. I thought I had the story when I started. I wasn’t even close… I was wrong. I really was…But it is a magical moment when you throw everything out.
7. The worst piece of advice I’ve ever received is ‘write what you know’. What an absolute piece of nonsense! If I wrote what I knew, it would be a million words of unmitigated boredom. No, write what you can fully imagine.
8. Of course, having been a journalist, I’ve written in hotel rooms, I’ve written on the side of roads, I’ve written in cafés, done all of that. You just need a quiet space without many distractions. No window with a view, just a desk and some decent computers. That’s it.
9. It’s very hard to say what engages you – it can be the most minor thing. The trick is to take the reader on that journey with you, to be very bold, to be adventurous, to try to do things narratively which are not common to the genre, and carry them along with you.

Source for quotes 2-5: Dead Good Books and 6-9: Penguin Books

Terry Hayes is a New York Times bestselling Australian author. He began his career as a journalist, working as the US correspondent for the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald. He spent periods as an investigative reporter, columnist, and radio show host. He has written I Am Pilgrim and The Year of the Locust, both of which have been adapted for film. His novels are espionage and crime thrillers. They explore terrorism, political conflict, loyalty, violence, and the moral choices people make. The Year of the Locust also blends science fiction with apocalyptic themes. He co-wrote Argylle: A Novel in 2024 as Elle Conway as a tie-in novel to the Argylle media franchise. He is also the award-winning writer and producer of numerous movies. His credits include Payback, Mad Max 2 Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Dead Calm, From Hell, and Vertical Limit. In all, he has won over 20 film or television awards.

Source for photograph: Penguin Books Australia, credit Johnny Ring

by Amanda Patterson
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