Douglas Preston Quotes

• You think of yourself as an "individual person", with a unique and separate mind. You think you are born and you think you die. All your life you feel separate and alone. Sometimes desperately so. You fear death because you fear the loss of individuality. All this is an illusion. You, he, she, those things around you living or not, the stars and galaxies, the empty space in between- these are not distinct, separate objects. All is fundamentally entangled.

  Douglas Preston

  Stars, Loss, Unique

  Douglas Preston (2009). “Blasphemy”, p.307, Pan Macmillan

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• When I'm writing fiction I'm thinking, God, this is so hard - I have to make all this stuff up! I wish I were writing a nonfiction book where all the facts are laid out and I don't have to be so much at sea.

  Douglas Preston

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  "The Power of Two: Bonus Outtakes From WD Interview With Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston". Interview with Brian A. Klems, www.writersdigest.com. January 12, 2012.

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• Once again, we shall have to operate not only outside the box, but outside the room containing the box.

  Douglas Preston

  Rooms, Boxes, Outside The Box

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• We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.

  Douglas Preston

  Differences, Monsters, Degrees

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• One can reach the gates of hell just as easily by short steps as by large.

  Douglas Preston

  Steps, Hell, Gates Of Hell

  Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child (2002). “The Cabinet of Curiosities: A Novel”, p.395, Hachette UK

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• The wise and good are outnumbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid.

  Douglas Preston

  Wise, Stupid, Brutal

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• I need to write in a small room - the smaller the better. I can't write in a big room where someone might sneak up behind my back.

  Douglas Preston

  Writing, Small Rooms, Needs

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• A human being creates complexity by writing a novel on the surface of paper; a weather system creates complexity by writing waves on the surface of an ocean. What is the difference between the information carried in the words of a novel and the information carried on the waves of the sea? Listen, and the waves will speak, and someday, I tell you, you will write your thoughts on the surface of the sea.

  Douglas Preston

  Ocean, Writing, Sea

  Douglas Preston (2008). “Blasphemy: A Novel”, p.519, Macmillan

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• Hubris and science are incompatible.

  Douglas Preston

  Hubris

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• The mandalas were meant to be objects of contemplation, aids to meditation, their proportions magically balanced to purify and calm the mind. To stare at a mandala was to experience, if only briefly, the nothingness that is at the heart of enlightenment.

  Douglas Preston

  Heart, Meditation, Mind

  Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child (2010). “The Wheel of Darkness: An Agent Pendergast Novel”, p.124, Hachette UK

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• There are so many journalists out there, I hate to say it, who are lazy and don't do their research - and it shows.

  Douglas Preston

  Hate, Lazy, Research

  "The Power of Two: Bonus Outtakes From WD Interview With Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston". Interview with Brian A. Klems, www.writersdigest.com. January 12, 2012.

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• My hobbies are mountain biking, horseback riding and packing, canoeing and kayaking, hiking, camping, cooking, and skiing.

  Douglas Preston

  Kayaking, Hiking, Cooking

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• Retribution is just outstanding.

  Douglas Preston

  Retribution, Outstanding

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• Steve Forman strafes the south Florida scene with Boca Knights, an outrageously funny mystery novel with a raft of offbeat characters and prose that moves trippingly off the pen. His main man, Eddie Perlmutter, ex-Boston cop attempting semi-retirement in Boca Raton like a fish trying to retire out of the water, is a character for the ages. Carl Hiaasen, watch your back.

  Douglas Preston

  Retirement, Moving, Character

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• It's a very bad habit, but one I find hard to break.

  Douglas Preston

  Habit, Break, Bad Habits

  "Relic". Book by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, 1995.

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• Pirate Hunters is a fantastic book, an utterly engrossing and satisfying read. It tells the story of the hunt for the rare wreck of a pirate ship, which had been captained by one of the most remarkable pirates in history. This is a real-life Treasure Island, complete with swashbuckling, half-crazy treasure hunters and vivid Caribbean settings-a story for the ages.

  Douglas Preston

  Crazy, Real, Book

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• My first job was washing dishes in the basement of a nursing home for $2.10 an hour, and I learned as much about the value of hard work there as I ever did later.

  Douglas Preston

  Jobs, Hard Work, Home

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• The Monster’s crimes were so horrific that a mere man could not possibly have committed them. Satan, in the end, had to be invoked.

  Douglas Preston

  Men, Monsters, Satan

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• Where are you from, Mr. Pendergast? Can't quite place the accent.” “New Orleans.” “What a coincidence! I went there for Mardi Gras once." “How nice for you. I myself have never attended.” Ludwig paused, the smile frozen on his face, wondering how to steer the conversation onto a more pertinent topic.

  Douglas Preston

  Nice, New Orleans, Topics

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• Make sure your family and loved ones don’t interrupt you during your
  writing time. If you’re a lawyer or doctor, friends don’t just stop by the office to chat or interrupt you from your work. But for some reason, people think writing is different. It isn’t, and you need to make clear that this is sacred time.

  Douglas Preston

  Writing, Thinking, Doctors

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• I would have to say the novel 'War and Peace' influenced me more than any other book. This greatest of novels demonstrated to me the enormous power of literature and fired me up with a desire to become a writer, to participate in what I considered then to be the greatest of all endeavors.

  Douglas Preston

  War, Book, Desire

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• I'm pretty much a 9-to-5 kind of guy. I usually get to work about 8 in the morning, and I work until 4 or 5, and sometimes I work on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Pretty much I keep the same hours as an accountant or clerk or whatever.

  Douglas Preston

  Morning, Sunday, Guy

  "The Power of Two: Bonus Outtakes From WD Interview With Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston". Interview with Brian A. Klems, www.writersdigest.com. January 12, 2012.

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• He found Pendergast's cool gaze on him, and he fidgeted. He'd forgotten about those eyes. They made you feel like you had just been stripped of your secrets.

  Douglas Preston

  Eye, Secret, Forgotten

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• There is nothing inherently wrong about science.

  Douglas Preston

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