In elementary school, I did well in science, but I was a poor writer. When I got to high school, I failed all my courses. Avi Read Quote
My mind has become somewhat like a book. What I mean by that is that when I look at the world, I see it as a story. Avi Read Quote
Writing takes a lot of patience. It usually takes me a year to write a book. One time, it took me 14 years to write a book, not that I worked on it every day. Avi Read Quote
I was born in New York City, along with a twin sister. I am five minutes older than Emily. It was Emily, for reasons no one knows – she certainly doesn’t – who called me Avi. It stuck. It’s the only name I use now. Avi Read Quote
To become a novelist, the most crucial thing one must do is read, read and read again – gradually you begin to think like a writer. Ideas are not found – they are shaped. Avi Read Quote
I think you become a writer when you stop writing for yourself or your teachers and start thinking about readers. Avi Read Quote
Writers don’t write writing, they write reading. When I was a kid, I read four or five books a week. And that is how I became a writer. Avi Read Quote
I definitely have an affection for detective fiction, and when I first read Dashiell Hammett’s ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ that book and its author made an enormous impression on me as a reader and a writer, and led me to other hard-boiled American writers like Raymond Chandler and Ross McDonald, among many. Avi Read Quote
Everybody has ideas. The vital question is, what do you do with them? My rock musician sons shape their ideas into music. My sister takes her ideas and fashions them into poems. My brother uses his ideas to help him understand science. I take my ideas and turn them into stories. Avi Read Quote
