Explore Quotes by George Pelecanos

'Treme' begins after Hurricane Katrina, and it's a year-by-year account of how everyday people there put their lives back together. It's sort of a testament to, or an argument for why, a great American city like New Orleans needs to be saved and preserved.

I am on my bike daily, and most of the locations, warehouses and specific residences from 'The Cut' were found while I was riding.

My father was a Marine who fought in the Pacific in WW II. He was a very tough guy, but after the war, he lived his life in a quiet and reserved manner because he had nothing to prove. I know now that he internalized his war experience.

Every young man's best purchase is his first car, which spells freedom. My first one was a '70 Camaro, springtime gold-over-saddle, a 307 with Hi-jackers and chrome reverse mags.

When I was 19, my dad got sick, and I quit college to take over his business, a coffee shop on 19th Street, below Dupont Circle in D.C. I had been working there since I was 11 years old, so it was not a stretch to think that I could do it, but my record as a teenager, in many respects, was less than stellar.

'The Big Sky' is an American classic.

I don't judge anyone of any stripe by what they read. Reading is always good for you. It's a positive act.

I shoot occasionally, but I'm no gun expert.

I never took a writing class.

A lot of guys are walking around with a lot simmering beneath the surface, and sometimes it explodes.

There are a lot of bars and shoe stores in my early books.

My senior year at College Park, University of Maryland, I took an elective class in crime fiction taught by Charles C. Mish. He turned me on in a big way to reading and books. I was lucky to have a teacher who changed the course of my life.

I read 'The Washington Post' every day from a very young age. Reading the newspaper taught me how to organize my thoughts on the page. Meaning, it taught me how to write.

I like fiction set in the South, and I'm a fan of literary westerns.

'Random Rules' kicks off 'American Water,' and from its opening line - 'In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection' - you know you're in for something strange and special.

I'm a strong believer in second chances.

I live in a bigger house, but I still live in the neighbourhood I grew up in.

Until a book starts forming in your head, you always wonder, 'Am I going to be able to do this again?'

'The Deuce' takes a look at the remarkable paradigm of capitalism and labor: where money goes and how it's routed; who has power and who doesn't; who is exploited and who's not.

I've just been very interested in the living side of Washington, rather than the federal side, since I was a kid.

I had met many wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center when I was researching my 2009 novel 'The Turnaround,' and I continue to be very interested in how returning servicemen and women deal with their new lives back home and how they're treated by America.