Literary Birthday – 14 July – Jeff Lindsay

Happy Birthday, Jeff Lindsay, born 14 July 1952.

Seven Quotes

1. What my research told me is that a psychopath cannot change. You’re born like that.
2. I wake up between three and four a.m. and work until it’s time to get the kids up. I’m the cook in the family so I cook the breakfasts and make the lunches. Then they go off to school and I go to the gym, come back, and usually get another hour or two of mostly re-writing done.
3. I have to plot the whole thing out, but I don’t always stick with it.
4. Anytime somebody is absolutely certain about something, they are almost always absolutely wrong.
5. Life would certainly be easier if we all came equipped with our own personal FAQ lists. When we meet someone, we could pass them a business card with the list on the back, and then step back and let them read before we tried to talk.
6. Pretending is the basis of civilised society, and it is sometimes necessary for all of us. Without it we are nothing more than a pack of snarling dogs.
7. Writing at any time is difficult. Because in order to do it you have to leave yourself wide open, which lets in a lot of stuff you don’t want to deal with. That’s always problematic, dealing with the other stuff and still maintaining focus. I am a total neurotic, so there were times when I was thinking, the first book wasn’t very good; why don’t I just die? And there were times when I was thinking, how can I write a book as good as the first book? It went back and forth like that.

Jeff Lindsay is an American crime novelist best known for his Dexter series of novels featuring the sociopathic vigilante, Dexter Morgan.

Source for Image

by Amanda Patterson

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