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Quotes By Donna Leon

I was extraordinarily lucky. I wrote a book because I wanted to see if I could write a mystery. Someone nagged me into sending it to a contest, which it won, after which I was offered a two-book contract, thus requiring the writing of a second book.

Donna Leon
Book Lucky Second

I have no memory for what happens in what books. I don’t know when I might remember a scene, but beats me what book it’s in because there are 14 of them now.

Donna Leon
Book Might Remember

I was at La Fenice opera house back in 1991 with friends, and we started talking about a conductor whom none of us liked. Somehow there was an escalation, and we started talking about how to kill him, where to kill him. This struck me as a good idea for a book.

Donna Leon
GoodBook House

And I don’t want to live anywhere where I am famous. It makes me very, very uncomfortable, because it conveys an advantage over people, and I don’t like that.

Donna Leon
FamousAdvantage Anywhere

A story begins and it always passes from the subjunctive to the declarative. And Italians don’t seem to care about making a fine distinction between that which is speculation and that which is fact.

Donna Leon
Care Fact Story

The ending is one of my blackest, utterly without hope of any sort.

Donna Leon
HopeEnding Sort

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the most liberal and illumined of the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Donna Leon
Court Liberal Nine

My father read ‘The New York Times,’ my mother did secretarial work, we had a dog, we had a garden, I had a brother.

Donna Leon
WorkFather Mother

I never wanted to be rich or successful or famous. I just wanted to be happy and have fun.

Donna Leon
FamousFun Happy

I never know what’s going to happen in a novel. I don’t have a plan or an outline.

Donna Leon
Happen Novel Plan

I love music. But I’ve never owned a TV in my adult life, and I’ve never lived in a place with a television.

Donna Leon
LifeLoveMusic

I don’t go to the movies because I don’t like films.

Donna Leon
MoviesFilms

Venetians feel affection and loyalty to their city, rather than to the Italian state.

Donna Leon
Loyalty Rather State

The character I created, ‘Commissario Brunetti,’ who appears in all my books, shares similar reading, artistic and musical tastes with me. Subconsciously, I knew that if I was to spend however long it would take to write this book with him, this man would have to be someone I’d like to have dinner with.

Donna Leon
Book Books Character

Italians tend to be less rigidly moral and law-abiding than do Anglo-Saxons. They also have a profound suspicion of the state and most of its agencies.

Donna Leon
Less Moral State
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