Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's as if another writer is on the scene. |
Evan Hunter doesn't know how to write mystery novels. Ed McBain does. Do I sound schizophrenic? Do I detect a bit of dual personality here? |
Evan Hunter is not a pseudonym. It has been my legal name since 1952. It is the name I answer to, the name on my passport, the name I sign to my checks, the name my family and friends know me by. Ed McBain is the pseudonym. |
I began using pseudonyms early in my career, when I was being paid a quarter a cent a word for my work, and when I had to write a lot to earn a living. Sometimes I had three or four stories in a single magazine without the editor knowing they were all by me. |
I can't say which of the writers inspired me the most, but it was probably Hemingway. |
I enjoy what I do every minute of the day, even when the going gets tough. When I first began writing, I used to work at a desk in the bedroom, of a small development house. My three sons all under the age of 3 would come running in and out of the room every minute. |
I got a B.A. from Hunter College, worked as a school teacher, a lobster salesman, and a literary agent before being published. |
I have a book coming out in September, for example, where the plot concerns counterfeiting, and I had to do a lot of research on that. Or on any legal matters, for example, I have to do a lot of research online. |
I never take ideas from the headlines. I feel that if a story is good enough, a real story that is, then it's already been covered by the media, and if it's not good enough, why would I want to bother with it? |
I try to keep all my novels in print. Sometimes publishers don't agree with me as to their worth. |
I wanted to be an artist. I was studying art. I wanted to be a great painter. When I went into the Navy, there wasn't much to draw at sea. So I began writing, and I began reading a lot. |
I would certainly never suggest that any lesbian should be ashamed of her sexual preference. |
I would like to win the Pulitzer Prize. I would like to win the Nobel Prize. I would like to win a Tony award for the Broadway musical I'm now working on. Aside from these, my aspirations are modest ones. |
I've never been a cop nor hope to be a cop, thanks. |
It seemed to me... that the only valid people to deal with crime were cops, and I would like to make the lead character, rather than a single person, a squad of cops. |