Authors I Love

I feel as if I have lived a sheltered life. Certainly as a kid, and even as a man now in his 70s, I don’t interact a lot with people. If I do, it’s in a guarded, even formal way. I have good “party manners,” but I don’t have the rich meaningful encounters that I imagine my friends and other people must have. (Perhaps they don’t either.)

For these reasons, I admire writers who seem to rip the covers off the facade that I (and most of us) show to the world. These writers find ordinary people and get under their skins. These writers, in my opinion, tell you more about our world, and certainly more about America in the 20th century, than you could find in any history book.

Which writers am I talking about? I can think of three: John O’Hara, James M Cain and Elmore Leonard. If you listen to the way they make their characters talk, and you enjoy the situations these writers create, you feel like you’re learning so much about the people you’ve lived around all your life and never really got to know.

I keep these writers in mind when I’m working. I love their skill at bringing ordinary people to life. And their commitment to telling great stories that provide plenty of character insights without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. These guys know how to give you a sense of the time and place where a story takes place without slowing down their plots.

I have many writers I admire. But for inspiration, Cain, O’Hara and Leonard are the champs.