In this issue, we interviewed Lawrence Block, the great master of crime, mystery and thriller novels, author of more than a hundred books published over sixty years and the creator of unforgettable characters such as Matt Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, Evan Tanner and Keller.
Hello, Mr. Lawrence Block. Thank you very much for agreeing to give an interview to Detective Magazine. First of all, I’d like to talk about the Turkish editions of your books. It actually goes back quite a long time. In 1972 your book After the First Death was published in Turkey, three years after it was published in the U.S. I read this book and I liked it very much, and the translation was good. Then Code of Arms, which you wrote with Harold King, was published in 1982. From 1997 onwards, Oğlak Publishing Company published most of the Matt Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr novels. Unfortunately, we haven’t read your new books since 2009. I hope this interview will lead to the re-publication of your books in Turkish. I wonder if there is a publishing house in Turkey that holds your publishing rights at the moment. If there is, as Lawrence Block fans, we want to protest them for depriving us from your books.
My only visit to Turkey, I’m embarrassed to say, was in 1998, and consisted of a very brief stop in Bodrum in the course of a cruise. And one of the few things I remember from the couple of hours we spent there was the discovery of copies of the Oglak editions of several of my books offered for sale at a bookstall in the street. The fellow passengers who spotted them were greatly impressed! For some years now, of course, my books have not been available in Turkey, and all rights have reverted. I hope a Turkish publisher might be interested in publishing my work.
Apart from your novels, you also have books on the art of writing. I know it’s hard to explain in a few sentences, but I still can’t help asking; what’s the secret for good writing? Do you believe in inspiration or ability in writing? Or is the secret always working hard?
If there’s a secret, I’m afraid it’s a secret from me as well. I have indeed written quite a few books for writers, and they’ve been very generously received, but all I’ve done is share my own experience and observations. Writing, it seems to be, is a very individual matter, different for everyone who does it, and I don’t think there’s any right or wrong way.
Can you tell us about your writing routines? Do you make research before you start writing? Do you have routines like listening to music while writing, or obligations like not being able to write outside a certain place? What are the most difficult aspects of your writing studies, can you give an example?
Well, I think I should start by saying that I have in fact stopped writing, that The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder and The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown, both published two years ago, are the concluding volumes in the Matthew Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr series, and that I’m presently enjoying retirement after over six decades as a writer of fiction. So, my routine these days consists of NOT writing.
Sixty-plus years ago I was sometimes inclined to listen to music while writing, but I soon found that silence served me a good deal better. Aside from that, my routine has varied considerably over the years. One practice I did find useful was going off somewhere to work on a book, often to a writers’ colony, but sometimes simply to a hotel or apartment in another city. The isolation seemed helpful.
You have written in different genres such as crime, mystery and thriller. Which one was your favorite and why? What do you think about the differences, similarities or advantages in between? How do you adapt your writing style for different genres?
I don’t really think in these terms. Most of my work has found a home beneath the broad canopy of crime fiction, and I’ve simply endeavored to write each book in the manner and style that best served the particular story I was trying to tell.
How do you overcome writer’s block? Do you have specific techniques or routines that help you when you’re feeling stuck?
A very good friend of mine, the late Jerrold Mundis, was an authority on the subject; his book, Break Writer’s Block Now! distills all his expertise intoone short volume—and I recommend it without hesitation.
For many crime writers, you are both an author whose books they enjoy reading and a master who taught them how to create realistic characters. So, who were your masters? What did you learn from them? Which authors or books have shaped your approach to crime fiction?
When I began writing crime fiction, I read hundreds upon hundreds of books and stories—and I’m sure what I read greatly influenced what I wrote.
In your opinion, what makes a compelling character? How do you form your characters to catch the readers? Is there a specific method or technique in creating your characters?
To my mind, bringing characters to life is the fiction writer’s most important task. If readers enjoy my work, I suspect it’s because they respond strongly to the characters. But as to what makes a character come alive on the page, well, I’m at a loss to explain it. As with most of the real work of writing, it’s largely done on an intuitive and unconscious level.
Keller, unfortunately whose only two novels can be read in Turkish, is a very unique character, and also a risky one that some readers might find disturbing, because he is a hitman. What inspired his creation, and did your creation of such a character have anything to do with addressing moral dilemmas?
Keller began as the protagonist of a single short story, “Answers to Soldier.” It was very well received, but it never occurred to me that I would have more to write about Keller. Two years after it was published, I found myself thinking about Keller, and how he was just the sort of Urban Lonely Guy who might wind up in psychotherapy. And so, I wrote another story, “Keller’s Therapy,” and one thing led to another.
As for moral dilemmas, a woman at a book signing said she thought I was doing something morally subversive. “I was reading Hit List,” she said, “and I found myself putting the book down and looking off into the middle distance, and I actually said out loud, ‘Well, so he kills people. What’s so bad about that?’”
Matthew Scudder, another important character of yours, ages in real time throughout the series, whereas we never see Bernie Rhodenbarr age. Was this a deliberate decision from the beginning and how do you think it affects their narratives?
It was clear to me early on that the Scudder books operated on a level of reality which made it imperative that the character be affected in one book by what he had undergone in another, and that he age and develop realistically and in real time—and so he has. The Burglar books are categorically different; the premise only works if Bernie stays essentially unchanged throughout the course of the series.
Which of your characters is most similar to you? How much of your personal experiences guide their stories?
I suppose they’re all aspects of their author. My late friend Peter Straub said once that Keller, in his internal monologues and observations, most reminded him of me.
Although Matt Scudder found some peace in the last novels of the series, especially after marrying the prostitute Elaine, he was a restless man who felt guilty for accidentally killing a little girl and took refuge in alcohol to drown his remorse. What do you think makes Scudder relatable to readers, given his flaws and past? How important is it for characters to have moral ambiguities in crime fiction?
I don’t really know.
In 2023, you wrote a book –The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder– that tells the story of your character Matt Scudder in his own words. Can you tell us about this interesting book, which I guess is unique?
Strange how it came about. Another friend, Otto Penzler, wanted me to write a profile of a few thousand words about Matthew Scudder. I knew I didn’t want to write about the character. I wrote the novels and stories, and I felt that should be the extent of my involvement. If someone was going to write about Scudder, it should be the man himself. And that idea engaged me, and I had a wonderful time with the book.
There is something I am curious about the books Hope to Die and All the Flowers Are Dying, both of which I have read with great excitement. In these books, unlike your previous Matt Scudder novels, you chose not to tell the story only from the protagonist’s perspective, but also to narrate the killer’s actions in third person. What was the reason for such a change in narrative that might cause readers who are used to hearing the story only from Matt Scudder to find it strange?
It just struck me as the right way to tell those particular stories.
Although individual issues are featured in your books, you also touch upon social problems. How do you manage to weave such themes into your narratives without making the story boring?
If my books deal with social issues, it’s because they’re part of the story. I’m not here to send anyone a message. I just write novels and tell stories.
How is your relationship with social media? Do you believe in the power of it? It is certain that social media provides direct interaction with readers, but on the other hand, how do you feel about being so easily accessible nowadays? How do you think writers should relate to social media? Do you get positive results from the social media devices you use?
I’ve been withdrawing from social media for a while now. I don’t look at Facebook anymore, let alone post on it, and have come to loathe Twitter. I opened an Instagram account some months ago, and 4000-plus people began following it, God knows why; I signed up so that I could follow a friend’s posts, and have never posted a single item myself. I probably ought to delete the app.
What is your advice for the fresh writers in the crime and mystery genres?
Don’t expect too much. The world is changing, and the younger generations have never caught on to the idea of reading for pleasure. I suspect you’ve just booked passage on a ship destined to spend eternity in dry dock.
Are there any new projects you are working on?
No, nor would I welcome any.
I’ve read or heard somewhere (or may be imagined it ) that you like to walk, just like Matt Scudder who walked around New York step by step while investigating murders. Do you think there is a relationship between writing and walking? If so, is it because they are balancing actions?
Hmmm. Well, I suppose they’re both reasonably pleasant ways to waste time.
Matt Scudder and Bernie Rhodenbarr were the characters that made me a crime fiction fan. Can you tell us if there are any fictional characters that have influenced you like this?
There almost certainly are, but none come to mind.
What has been the most rewarding moment in your writing career? What is the most interesting or unforgettable feedback you have received from your readers so far?
It’s been a very satisfying way to spend a life. I don’t think for a moment that the work will last much beyond my lifetime, because just about nothing does, and I’m fine with that. As for feedback, well, half a century ago I got a letter from a reader, and one thing led to another, and I wound up meeting her and, um, spending some time with her. And she explained how she had come to write me in the first place. “I was talking to a friend, wondering if I should write to you, and he said, ‘Well, his book got you through a couple of bad nights, so why not write to him?’” So, one of my books got at least one person through a bad night or two, and it still pleases me to know that.
Several of your books have been adapted into movies, but I think the movie, which is based on the novel A Walk Among the Tombstones, is a great one in that it both accurately portrays the character of Matt Scudder and stays as true to the book as possible. In one scene in the novel, as I recall, Scudder’s sidekick TJ says, “If this was a movie, I would hide in the back of the truck, but this is not a movie…” and the novel progresses in a way where TJ doesn’t stay in the killers’ truck. I was struck by the fact that Scott Frank, who wrote and directed the movie, preferred the possibility that TJ mentioned instead of the scenario in the book. What did you think of this choice? Did the director think that the scenario in the novel would be less exciting, or was it due to the different structures of a novel and a movie script? When you wrote this scene in the book, did you aim to guide potential directors?
I like the movie, esp. Liam Neeson’s performance. I’m not crazy about Scott Frank’s choices in respect to plot.
I didn’t have the chance to read The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep, the first novel of Evan Tanner, but when I looked at what was written about its content, I learned that part of novel takes place in Turkey. I know that writers can write about a place without seeing it, considering that they are describing non-existent people and events, but I still wondered if you had seen Turkey while writing the novel.
When I wrote the Tanner novels, back in the 1960s, I hadn’t traveled anywhere outside of North America and the British Isles, nor did I do much in the way of research.
Detective fiction has undergone great changes since Edgar Allen Poe, which is considered as its beginning. What do you think about the changes you have seen in recent years and the future of this genre?
Substantial changes indeed. As for where it’s all going, I’m not the person to ask.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with your readers or aspiring writers?
Can’t think of anything.
I am grateful to you for the opportunity to interview my favorite crime writer and look very much forward to your new books in Turkey.
