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I’m basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer.

Alan Furst

I don’t just want my books to be about the ’30s and ’40s. I want them to read as if they had been written then. I think of them as ’40s novels, written in the conservative narrative past.
ALAN FURST

Book Forty Just Raed Thirty Want Written
I have a very serious censorship office inside my head; it censors things that I could tell you that you would never forget, and I don’t want to be the person to stick that in your brain.
ALAN FURST

Brain Censorship Head Office Person Serious Stick Tell Very
One is what one has the nerve to pretend to be.
ALAN FURST

Nerve One Pretend
I grew up reading genre writers, and to the degree that Eric Ambler and Graham Greene are genre writers.
ALAN FURST

Book Degree Genre People Person Raed Writer
The best Paris I know now is in my head.
ALAN FURST

Best Country Hed Know
When I start writing, I do two pages a day; if I’m gonna do 320, that’s 160 days.
ALAN FURST

Day Do Gonna Page Start Two Write
Live today, for tomorrow we die.
ALAN FURST

Die Love Today Tomorrow
I’m a genre writer.
ALAN FURST

Genre Writer
Good people want to spend their time mowing the lawn and playing with the dog. But bad people spend all their time being bad. It is all they think about.
ALAN FURST

All Abot Bad Dog Good Lawn Move People Play Spend Think Time
It takes me three months of research and nine months of work to produce a book.
ALAN FURST

Book Month Months Nine Produce Research Take Three Work
Wherever God has planted you, you must know how to flower – translated from a French saying
ALAN FURST

Country Flower God Know Plant Say Translate
Good people don’t spend their time being good.
ALAN FURST

Good People Spend Time
My novels are about the European reality, not about chases. You want chases, get somebody else’s books.
ALAN FURST

Book Chase Country Else Novel Reality Somebody
I expect that my readers have been to Europe, I expect them to have some feeling for a foreign language.
ALAN FURST

Country Except Feeling Foreign Language Reader Been Some
Whether you like it or not, Paris is the beating heart of Western civilisation. It’s where it all began and ended.
ALAN FURST

Beat Began Civilization Country End Heart Western
I invented the historical spy novel.
ALAN FURST

Historical Invent Novel Spy

I’m basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer.

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I’m basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer.

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