I always do book signings with the same blue pen. That way, if I add a personalised message to a book I've already signed, it'll be in the same colour as my signature.
Most men cannot write good sex. I tried one time years ago and showed it to my wife, and she felt like laughing.
We've sent 130 men to death row to be executed in this country, at least 130 that we know of, who have later have been exonerated because they were either innocent, or they were not fairly tried. That's 130 people that we've locked down on death row. And they've spent years there.
Still, something about writing made me spend large hours of my free time at my desk.
Every morning I wake at 6am or 6.30am, champing at the bit.
I used to walk in a bookstore and see all these books on the walls. And I would say, 'Who wants to hear from me? What do I have to add to all of this?'
I can't write - I can't think like a woman... it's not natural, but I've tried.
There are three types of words: words we all know, words we should know, and words nobody knows. Don't use the third category.
I've tried writing with music on, but I find it distracting.
I had never written anything. And I had never studied writing. So my motives were pure: I had a great story... a courtroom drama that I sort of fictionalized, and that became 'A Time to Kill.'
I sat down with a yellow legal pad and began writing 'A Time to Kill.' Had no idea what I was doing. It became, over a period of several years, a secret little hobby nobody knew about except my wife, because she was reading chapter by chapter.
I seriously doubt I would ever have written the first story had I not been a lawyer. I never dreamed of being a writer. I wrote only after witnessing a trial.
I spend a lot of time outlining before I write the first word.
That's the best way to practice law, is writing about it and not having to be in the courtroom!
