David Baldacci

And that's where I do my best stuff.

Yeah, you're spot on with that.

I, you know, I never had this ambition to be best selling in any type of writer.

I spent 10 years of my life writing short stories just because I like to tell a story.

So for me, it's always about learning the craft, getting better.

You know, I think my early books, I was too verbose.

I said in a thousand words what I should have said in a hundred.

And now I try to say in 10 words what I used to write in a hundred.

And that takes a lot more work, but I want my writing to be as clean and smooth as possible.

I want every word to have earned its right to be in there.

It's like the Gettysburg Address, the greatest political speech in American history.

It's only 360-odd words long.

It took Lincoln two minutes to say it, but every word had earned its right to be in the speech.

And I think that I get my characters deeper and deeper with every book because...

I feel like with every novel, I'm writing my first novel and I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.

And that makes me try harder.

I've got this huge chip on my shoulder because I don't feel like, you know, I know anything.

And, but that makes you try harder.

You know, if you think you, you never want to ask as a writer, how did I do it last time?

And then just change the names, you know, and then the plot is the same.