Quotes by Marcus Sakey - Page 1

I'm always geeking out about something.
Marcus Sakey / Author
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I'm a card-carrying nerd, a gamer, and sci-fi geek.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Gamer
Sci Fi
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No matter how long you spend at creation, you're always a student.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Long
Matter
Students
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I've always been fascinated by mythology or, in modern parlance, by X-Men or vampires.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Fascinated
Mythology
Vampires
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For me, the best moments in storytelling are the ones where I feel I'm discovering something.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Discovering
Best Me Feel
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I like female characters that are strong in their own right and not because the author said so.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Female Characters
Author
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For me, one of the hallmarks of a really great book is that I'm seeing it in my head while I'm reading.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Great Book
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As the Occupy Movement demonstrated, it's tough to change anything when you're talking about everything.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Movement
Tough
Occupy
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I like really sharp flavors, and I like contrasts. Something sweet and sour at the same time is a big win.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Sour
Flavors
Same Time
Sharp
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I still miss my first car. Not a glamorous ride, but I must've put 60,000 miles in road trips on that thing.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Glamorous
Miles
Miss
Ride
Trips
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The first job of a storyteller is to make the reader feel the story, to get the reader to live in the skin of the character.
Marcus Sakey / Author
First Job
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Part of the fun of writing is having messages. Without them, it's all gunfights and car chases, and none of it means anything.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Messages
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I write crime novels and thrillers - I'm a big fan of cops. You can never forget that they run towards what everyone else runs away from.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Never Forget
Thrillers
Big Fan
Cops
Everyone Else
Runs
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I make no promises every book will be about Chicago, but it's so inspiring. It's a city of such contradictions. I love to write about it.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Inspiring
Chicago
Contradictions
Promises
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Personally, one of the most helpful things I learned was three-act structure. For my first four or so novels, I built the structure intuitively.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Firsts
Four
Three
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If you pick up a copy of 'A Better World,' you'll lose those last five pounds while saving a baby seal under a rainbow. I kid. It'll be ten pounds.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Pounds
Rainbow
Ten
Better World
Copy
Pick
Seal
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I didn't want to just write a series - I wanted to write an epic, on story that spans three books, where decisions made in the first impact the last.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Book
Epic
Writing
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One of the things that I love about crime novels is that you can turn the volume all the way up. If I can make somebody blow their subway stop, I win.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Blow
Crime
Subway
Volume
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My feeling is that the most dangerous people are always those who take a hardline position - and nothing inspires that sort of extremism like difference.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Extremism
Position
Always People Nothing
Difference
Inspires
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When I write, I try not to cast in my head, because then I'm writing to a major movie star, and it picks up those ticks, and that's not what I want to do.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Movie Star
Picks
Cast
Major
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Stephen King is open about the fact that he continues to learn the craft, and if King hasn't got it figured out yet, what the hell hope have the rest of us got?
Marcus Sakey / Author
Kings
Crafts
Facts
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The world would be a better place if people stopped voting for folksy candidates they could have a beer with and started voting for people smarter than they are.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Beer
People
Voting
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I'm not at all upset to be considered a crime novelist. But for me, it's never really about the crime or the violence. I'm much more interested in exploring issues.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Exploring
Upset
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My novels are never directly based on a true crime incident, but I want to get the details right. I want to know how homicide detectives think, what a SWAT team might do to prepare.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Detectives
Homicide
Directly
Incident
Prepare
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As an author, it's a strange process to watch your novel turned into a movie. It's tremendously exciting but somewhat voyeuristic; after all, novelists are rarely involved in the process.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Involved
Novelists
Strange
Author
Somewhat
Rarely
Tremendously
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Hollywood is a deeply odd place. There are so many factors that have to go perfectly, so many schedules and visions that have to snap together for a film even to be made, much less be good.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Hollywood
Together
Vision
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The thing I'm always trying to do when I write is hit that sweet spot where the book both keeps you up late at night, and yet a week after you've finished, it still pops back into your head.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Finished
Pops
Spot
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A decade in advertising exposed me to plenty of schemers and backstabbers. But honestly, advertising is wonderful training for fiction. Writing novels is much easier if you've ever tried to write a billboard.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Advertising
Exposed
Fiction Writing
Plenty
Billboard
Decade
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I do wish that reviews were less like book reports. There was an era when reviewers had something to say about a book: when they painted context and drew conclusions. Many reviews these days are little more than plot summary.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Plot
Reports
Reviewers
Summary
Wish
Conclusions
Context
Drew
Painted
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Once I came to really understand the mechanics of three-act structure, my life got a great deal easier. It doesn't tell you how to write your book, but it helps you understand why things aren't working, or what kind of beat needs to come next.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Book
Next
Writing
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Nobody is accidentally in Alaska. The people who are in Alaska are there because they choose to be, so they've sort of got a real frontier ethic. The people are incredibly friendly, interesting, smart people - but they also stay out of each other's business.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Business
Alaska
Friendly
Interesting
Real
Smart
Smart People
Accidentally
Also
Nobody
Business People Nobody
Choose
Stay
Each
Ethic
Got
Incredibly
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Honestly, I don't focus on what my writing is called. I don't mean to sound artsy and pretentious, I just really can't think of things in that way. For me, the point is telling a story that keeps people up past bedtime, while hopefully exploring ideas that resonate.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Bedtime
Exploring
Pretentious
Resonate
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My goal as a novelist is to create smart entertainment, books that keep bright people up too late, that make them want to read just one more chapter. Books that have ideas threaded in amidst the thrilling bits, ideas that I hope linger even after people close the book.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Bits
Entertainment
Just One
Late
Smart
Thrilling
Too Late
Amidst
Bright
Chapter
Close
Linger
Novelist
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When people ask me where I get my ideas, I lie. I tell them I draw inspiration from the news, the world, my dreams. Or I joke and say that I steal from other writers. I lie because I don't know where ideas come from, and I'm afraid if I look too hard, they'll stop coming.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Ideas
Inspiration
News
Afraid
Coming
Draw
Writers
Lie
Steal
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I'm a Hemingway fan, so in a manner of speaking, I've been fishing with him already. But man, would I love to board Pilar in Key West and head south until we have a day-long battle with a tarpon, haul that bad boy up, then celebrate by telling lies over rum on a Cuban terrace.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Bad Boy
Battle
Celebrate
Cuban
Fishing
Haul
Rum
Telling Lies
Terrace
Board
Hemingway
Manner
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I learned to dive in Belize, which is sort of like learning to drive in an Aston Martin. The reefs and refuges are some of the most dramatic in the world. But the real reason I went was to dive the Blue Hole, a 400 ft. sinkhole near Ambergris Caye. Google it, and you'll see why.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Blue
Dramatic
Google
Dive
Hole
Martin
Near
Real Reason
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He had been someone before. That person had been the result of a lifetime of choices, good and bad. And like it or not, he was drawing closer to that identity now. Not the freedom of infinite variety, but the tyranny of a decision made, a path walked, a life lived. What if he didn't like the view
Marcus Sakey / Author
Choices
Drawing
Views
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The best thing about writing speculative fiction is the opportunity to satirize the whole wide world. The America in 'A Better World' isn't ours, but it's pretty close, so I could lampoon everything from partisan politics to the cult of celebrity to our general disaffection. To me, all that is the point.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Cult
Partisan Politics
Wide
Better World
Ours
Partisan
Speculative
Wide World
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In 1791, the right to bear arms to defend against an over-reaching government wasn't theoretical. Today, it's hard to imagine physical weapons serving the same purpose. But it's easy to see how hacktivists might - especially if you broaden the opponents to include hate groups and rapacious multinationals.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Arms
Groups
Imagine
Opponents
Purpose
Serving
Theoretical
Weapons
Bear
Broaden
Defend
Include
Multinational
Physical
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The notion of a writer sitting in a library doing research isn't what I want. The research I love doing isn't found in a book. It's what it feels like to rappel down the side of a building; to train with a SWAT team; to hold a human brain in your hands; or to dive for pirate treasure. Those are things I've done to research my stories.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Brain
Human Brain
Library
Notion
Pirate
Research
Sitting
Train
Treasure
Dive
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I don't know if this is the flat-out strangest, but I'll never forget handling a human brain. It had been sliced into sections for autopsy, each about an inch thick, and felt like pork tenderloin. I swear to god, my first thought was that if you were to dust it with chipotle and cinnamon and saute it in butter, it would probably be delicious.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Brain
Delicious
Dust
Felt
Forget
Human Brain
Never Forget
Pork
Sections
Swear
Thick
Butter
Handling
Inch
Sliced
Strangest
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Trying to analyze a situation without enough data was like looking at a photograph of a ball in flight and trying to gauge its direction. Is it going up, down, sideways? Is it about to collide with a baseball bat? Is it moving at all, or is something on the blind side holding it in place? A single frame didn't mean a thing. Patterns were based on data. With enough datapoints, you could predict just about anything.
Marcus Sakey / Author
Baseball
Mean
Moving
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Marcus Sakey Quotes - Page 1

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