"I really believe that a writer is someone who has trained their mind to misbehave"
About this Quote
For a novelist in Thor’s lane - espionage, violence, state secrets, moral trade-offs - “misbehave” isn’t adolescent rebellion. It’s professional trespass. The writer must imagine how systems fail, how decent people rationalize ugly choices, how authority speaks in euphemism. That’s why the phrase lands: it suggests that storytelling is a kind of sanctioned rule-breaking, a rehearsal space for taboo questions. What would I do if the law were wrong? What would a hero do if heroism required harm?
The subtext is also a small defense of genre work. Thrillers are often dismissed as “formula,” yet Thor implies the opposite: the form demands mental agility, the willingness to violate expected paths while still delivering coherence. Misbehavior, in other words, has to be legible.
There’s an ethical edge here, too. Training the mind to misbehave means learning to inhabit motives you don’t endorse. It’s empathy with a safety catch - unsettling, useful, and, when done well, clarifying about the world readers actually live in.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Thor, Brad. (2026, January 16). I really believe that a writer is someone who has trained their mind to misbehave. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-really-believe-that-a-writer-is-someone-who-has-109827/
Chicago Style
Thor, Brad. "I really believe that a writer is someone who has trained their mind to misbehave." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-really-believe-that-a-writer-is-someone-who-has-109827/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I really believe that a writer is someone who has trained their mind to misbehave." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-really-believe-that-a-writer-is-someone-who-has-109827/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.







