Top 20 Quotes by Martin Cruz Smith

Most people - and particularly people whose lives have nothing to do with books at all - are intrigued by the idea that somebody wants to listen to them and get it right.

Of course the biggest mafia in Russia has always been the government; in Soviet times, the Communist Party, and now a circle of former KGB and FSB.

Then years back, when I moved to California, I happened to see a book about fashions of 19th-century Victorian England, only four pages of which was devoted to the dress of the working class.

Then there was the whole concept of coal mining, which is a culture unto itself, the most dangerous occupation in the world, and which draws and develops a certain kind of man.

I never thought I would just be doing Arkady books.

'High Concept' means a book or a film whose core idea can be stated in a single sentence, such as 'Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are twins.' Or, 'Arnold is pregnant.'

I've always been struck by how unsuspicious people are in general, if you tell them what you're about.

I feel very bad about getting things wrong.

I hate to be categorized.

I'm very aware when I'm speaking to the English of how flat my Mid-Atlantic American voice is.