Martin Landau's Quotes

Bad guys don't think they're bad guys. Hitler probably thought he was a wonderful guy doing some wonderful and righteous work for Germany.

I always treat each take as a rehearsal for the next take. That way you can find stuff and keep adding and playing until they tell me to stop.

And the 90% they are not is what I do for a living.

I did theatrical caricatures.

I've always been interested in science fiction.

Just five years before that the Russians were our allies.

The real good comedians, like Chaplin, would make you laugh and a second later, cry.

Everything that has happened to me is of value to me. As painful as certain things are, and have been, and were, there's a use for those things in my life and in my work.

I'm very proud of Space 1999. Its success paved the way for other sci-fi shows to follow. My hope is that the DVD release will help it reach a new generation of fans.

You can have immediate regrets, but if you look at stuff and say, 'Things happen for a reason', there's a fatalistic thing about it. Something will happen that will justify it in some way.

Crime and legal stories, broadly speaking, are just where my interest happens to lie.

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

I am interested in computers and technology, and art, photography, and design.

I can't say that I ever actually decided to become a writer. It kind of snuck up on me.

I don't ever write with a particular audience in mind. I just write books that please me.

I love sports, as all Bostonians seem to. I love books and movies, as all writers seem to.

I'm a bit of a tech geek myself.

Well, I outline fanatically. I am a long thinker and a slow writer, though I am trying to get faster.

You can write a great book and be ignored. Literary history is full of classics that were under-appreciated in their own time.

Genes are not simple triggers. No one is hardwired to commit murder or any other crime. Our actions are always the result of stupendously complex gene-environment interactions, and environment is likely to remain the more important influence by far.

Probably careful plotting reflects my personality. I am meticulous by nature. I can't imagine speed-writing anything that happens to pop into my head.

When I was 30 or so - by that time I had become an assistant D.A. - I decided I would try to write a novel. To be clear: I did not decide to become a novelist. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that I could actually earn a living as a professional novelist.