Donna Leon
Donna Leon
Donna Leonis the American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice, Italy and featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guido Brunetti...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth29 September 1942
CountryUnited States of America
military antagonism particular
I have always had a particular antagonism for the military.
lunch files knows
I just go to lunch. And I never know when something is going into the file and something is not.
loyalty italian cities
Venetians feel affection and loyalty to their city, rather than to the Italian state.
ideas justice gone
I find the idea of vigilante justice very attractive. I like the idea that the murderer decides that this person has gone too far, and nothing will happen to him unless she does something to stop him.
people way bars
Sit around the bars, talked to people, ate in the restaurants, and chatted with the old ladies on the street. Fishermen are pretty much that way.
people favors asks
favors are always for ourselves. Especially when we ask for things for other people.
book writing two
I was extraordinarily lucky. I wrote a book because I wanted to see if I could write a mystery. Someone nagged me into sending it to a contest, which it won, after which I was offered a two-book contract, thus requiring the writing of a second book.
people want advantage
And I don't want to live anywhere where I am famous. It makes me very, very uncomfortable, because it conveys an advantage over people, and I don't like that.
almost best came friendship lucky remain time venice
I came to Venice for the first time in 1968 and was lucky enough to make the acquaintanceship, and then the friendship, of two Venetians, Roberta and Franco, who remain my best friends here after almost 50 years.
baroque comments festivals involved music opera
I'm involved with a baroque opera company here in Italy. I write some of their booklet material, comments on operas. I also write for some baroque opera festivals because this music is my real passion.
less state suspicion tend
Italians tend to be less rigidly moral and law-abiding than do Anglo-Saxons. They also have a profound suspicion of the state and most of its agencies.
admire beyond clue dickens sure women
I admire Dickens beyond words. He is one of the greatest plotters of all times. Didn't have a clue about women, but he sure could plot.
music vocal
I listen to Handel's vocal music, almost exclusively.
appears artistic dinner however knew man musical shares similar spend tastes
The character I created, 'Commissario Brunetti,' who appears in all my books, shares similar reading, artistic and musical tastes with me. Subconsciously, I knew that if I was to spend however long it would take to write this book with him, this man would have to be someone I'd like to have dinner with.