Ken Bruen Quotes

I committed a cardinal sin as a kid. I never spoke, and my mother thought there was something seriously wrong with me. A silent child is regarded as a problem in Ireland, and I just read all the time.

- Ken Bruen

The tourist board have put a bounty on me head, but they like the biz from tourists.

- Ken Bruen

I always had this notion of a noir novel in Galway. The city is exploding, emigration has reversed, and we are fast becoming a cosmopolitan city.

- Ken Bruen

Jack Taylor was a private investigator in Galway, which seemed like madness. I used lots of Galway-isms, which seemed like madness, too.

- Ken Bruen

My own life has had so many twists that I keep thinking I'll have one blessing that is not in disguise.

- Ken Bruen

My father believed a real man didn't read, and my parents hoped I'd get some sense and find a job in insurance.

- Ken Bruen

I was a failed actor, but for 25 years, I got to go on stage anyway, and I loved it. I've still got the day job, and the travel bug.

- Ken Bruen

Whenever dark things happen in my life, there is always some dark humour.

- Ken Bruen

Because I've been so bad at looking after myself, how would I ever look after a kid? But the old cliche applied: they handed her to me, and my world turned upside down - and I realised I was now going to be vulnerable in more ways than I expected.

- Ken Bruen

I'd kill to be a poet.

- Ken Bruen

I had wanted to write English crime novels based on the American hard-boiled style, and for the first two novels about Brixton, the critics didn't actually know I was Irish.

- Ken Bruen

After five awful movies, I admitted failure and said I was not cut out to be an actor. But how many people get a chance to live their dream?

- Ken Bruen

Crime fiction is the new rock n' roll.

- Ken Bruen

We haven't had crime writers, and for a long time in the Republic, we didn't seem to have a crime problem as such.

- Ken Bruen

The only book in our home was the Bible. My parents forbade books. They thought I needed help because I wanted to be a writer!

- Ken Bruen

I decided to write books, just to prove to myself that I was still alive, if nothing else.

- Ken Bruen