I’d worked at a small town newspaper, and I was thinking of all the strange stories that I had seen float through the newsroom in my time there that were dismissed as kind of amusing curiosities. Somehow from that I got to this idea of an eccentric alcoholic who built a lighthouse in the woods. Michael Koryta Read Quote
I’ve never really found inspiration for story ideas in the news, but I’d say it certainly affects our lives in so many ways. I would say that certainly the stories of the day appear in the work – I just have never gone so far as to say, well, this particular event could influence a plot of an entire book. Michael Koryta Read Quote
Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter films and was the family comedy king through the ’80s and ’90s – ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ ‘Home Alone,’ etc. – has acquired rights to ‘The Cypress House’ and is working on the script himself, with intent to direct. Michael Koryta Read Quote
Stephen King, by far, is the standard-bearer. I think anyone who writes suspense fiction and says that King isn’t an influence is either lying or being foolish. I read his book ‘On Writing’ before I read pretty much any of his fiction. Michael Koryta Read Quote
Envy the Night’ was my first stand alone, the first book I’d written in the third person and I loved the feel of that, and it was different but it was also the same. ‘So Cold the River,’ I knew, was going to be really different, and that’s why I thought about doing it as a novella under a pseudonym, because I didn’t want to damage my career. Michael Koryta Read Quote
For ‘So Cold the River,’ I’m actually working on adapting the book with Scott Silver, who was just nominated for an Oscar for ‘The Fighter,’ and who also wrote ‘8 Mile,’ which I think is a terrific screenplay. The chance to work with Scott is a tremendous pleasure and I’m learning a lot. Michael Koryta Read Quote
You have only so many chances to tell stories. I didn’t want to be forever wedded to one form of storytelling when there are so many out there. Michael Koryta Read Quote
I would say of characters I’ve created, the one I’ve felt the most connected to emotionally was Adam Austin from ‘The Prophet.’ I think it was the connection to the idea that one decision you make innocently enough can have very serious, drastic consequences for someone else’s life. Michael Koryta Read Quote
I’ve always listened to music while I write, but none of my work has been so directly impacted by a song as my new novel, ‘So Cold the River,’ for which the brilliant strings piece ‘Short Trip Home,’ composed by Edgar Meyer and featuring the incredible Joshua Bell on violin, inspired much of the story. Michael Koryta Read Quote
I made a very conscious effort to finish ‘The Cypress House’ before ‘So Cold the River’ launched, because I thought that would help build a buffer between my writing and any impact that came from either the success or the failure of that first book. Michael Koryta Read Quote
