Robert B. Parker

Robert B. Parker (On the TV series, Spenser: For Hire): Their Hawk, magnificently played by Avery Brooks, is less amoral than my Hawk, more rigidly adhering to some kind of private warrior code. Since neither their Spenser nor their Hawk is allowed to shoot first, they are sometimes required to look either slow or silly while they stand around waiting to return fire. Because television thrives on extended action, their villains seem more evenly matched with their Spenser and Hawk. Television hates a one-punch fight.

Robert B. Parker (On the TV series Spenser: For Hire): When I agreed to the TV series, I did so with a clear sense that a thing is what it is, and not something else. It is the business of television to put on good television, not to replicate my books. Their Spenser succeeds in this. It is not entirely my Spenser, but it's good television.

Robert B. Parker (On TV series, Spenser: For Hire): I like the show, and I like the novels. If I were you, I'd watch their Spenser and read mine, and enjoy them both. A thing is, after all, what it is, and not something else.

Robert B. Parker (On Joe Mantegna): I looked at Joe and I saw Spenser. At first, you think he's not big enough. But neither was Bogart big enough to play two larger-than-life action heroes, Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade. After a while, you don't notice the physical thing.

Robert B. Parker: I sit down every day and write five pages on my computer. At some point I found that not outlining worked better than outlining. The outline had become something of a limitation more than it was a support.

Robert B. Parker: I don't look at tapes of myself on the Today Show or when I'm on Larry King. My wife Joan keeps track of what's being said in the press, but she doesn't tell me unless she thinks I need to know.

Robert B. Parker (On his Spenser novels): With the first book, I was kind of imitating Chandler, who I think is one of the greatest American writers of the century. In the second, I had a little more confidence. When Spenser met Susan, she was just going to be his new bed mate. Then I realized it was my opportunity to write about the fundamental fact of my life. I can use her: I can write about love.

Robert B. Parker: Somebody once asked me, 'Why do you sell your books to Hollywood?' I answered, 'For money! What other reason is there?'.

Robert B. Parker (On the creation of character Sunny Randall): Some time in 1997 I think Joan and I had a meeting with Helen [Hunt] and others to discuss creating a character for her to play in a series of movies. After a lot of talk it was decided that I would write a novel about a female private eye. My publisher would publish it, and Sony would buy it for Helen. That all happened except that the process of actually making the movie foundered. But the books did well and my publisher urged me to continue with them.

Robert B. Parker: The best thing I ever did was marry the former Joan Hall on August 26, 1956. The next best thing was to conspire with her for David and Daniel Parker. At that point, my life was essentially fulfilled and the rest of this has been frosting on the cake.

Robert B. Parker: Certain aspects of my novels reflect my own life, but in ways that only I understand; that is, you can't read Spenser's career and draw any very intelligent conclusions about my life. Other parts are more obvious. My wife Joan and I were separated for a period in the early eighties, which was reflected in Susan and Spenser's relationship. One of my recurring characters is a choreographer/actor and I have a son who is a choreographer, and another who's an actor.

Robert B. Parker (On his living arrangements with wife Joan): We live an odd way which is like the way Susan Silverman and Spenser do. We live in the same house but she lives on the second floor and I live on the first. There's no doors - we come back and forth.

Robert B. Parker: I don't have any other job, so I get up in the morning and feed Pearl the Wonder Dog. I have coffee and read the Globe, do a little business, make a few phone calls. Somewhere in the 9:00 range I start writing...Pearl the Wonder Dog arises early.

Robert B. Parker: It took me two weeks to write my doctoral dissertation, which is what it was worth. It was about the right amount of time. It's not terribly good, but it was sufficient to get me a Ph.D. and free me from the toils of freshman comp. The fact that I wrote this doctoral dissertation and then became who I am is far less significant than it would appear. I would have been exactly who I am had I not written that doctoral dissertation. But while I am not pro academic, I found getting the Ph.D. very useful and one of the most productive and enriching things I ever did.

Robert B. Parker: Susan and Spenser will never part. You can count on that. And I plan on writing the series until I can't. I don't plan to kill him off. I don't plan to write a book hidden away that would reveal that his first name is Bruce, and that he and Susan have a child. The last book will be the last book. And when I'm dead or can't write another one for whatever reason, that'll be the end of that.