Ken Bruen Quotations

I had wanted to write English crime novels based on the American hard-boiled style, and for the first two novels about Brixton, the critics didn't actually know I was Irish.

I committed a cardinal sin as a kid. I never spoke, and my mother thought there was something seriously wrong with me. A silent child is regarded as a problem in Ireland, and I just read all the time.

Because I've been so bad at looking after myself, how would I ever look after a kid? But the old cliche applied: they handed her to me, and my world turned upside down - and I realised I was now going to be vulnerable in more ways than I expected.

Whenever dark things happen in my life, there is always some dark humour.

We haven't had crime writers, and for a long time in the Republic, we didn't seem to have a crime problem as such.

The tourist board have put a bounty on me head, but they like the biz from tourists.

The only book in our home was the Bible. My parents forbade books. They thought I needed help because I wanted to be a writer!

My own life has had so many twists that I keep thinking I'll have one blessing that is not in disguise.

Jack Taylor was a private investigator in Galway, which seemed like madness. I used lots of Galway-isms, which seemed like madness, too.

I was a failed actor, but for 25 years, I got to go on stage anyway, and I loved it. I've still got the day job, and the travel bug.