Alan Furst

When you move a border, suddenly life changes violently. I write about nationality. ”

If you read the history of the national Socialist party, they're all people who felt like life should have been better to them. They're disappointed, vengeful, angry. ”

I spend my life writing fiction, so reading fiction isn't much of an escape. That's not always true, but I don't read much contemporary fiction. ”

A book must have moral purpose to be any good. Why, I don't know. ”

The Levanter' features some of the strongest action scenes to be found in Ambler - who can, in some of his fiction, stay in one place for a whole novel. ”

Women take great care of themselves in France. It's a culture dedicated to making women beautiful and to manners. ”

I've never lived in Eastern Europe, although both my wife and I have ancestors in Poland and Russia - but I can see the scenes I create. ”

I'm basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer. ”

I look for the dark story, where something secret was done. I read and read and pick up the trail of a true story. I use nothing but true stories. They are so much better than phony ones. ”

My theory is that sometimes writers write books because they want to read them, and they aren't there to be read. And I think that was true of me. ”