Time & Perspective Quote by Sidney Sheldon

Sheldon is doing a neat bit of brand management here: he frames page-turning "action" not as pure invention, but as an earned illusion. "Believable action" is the phrase that gives away the intent. He is defending the machinery of the thriller - coincidences, reversals, high-stakes maneuvering - by anchoring it in a moral-sounding word: authenticity. The subtext is pragmatic: readers will tolerate wild plots if the world feels true enough to hold them.

"Accuracy is very important to me" also functions as a preemptive rebuttal. Sheldon wrote in an era when blockbuster fiction was often dismissed as glossy, shallow, or internationally interchangeable. By emphasizing research, he claims the novelist's version of journalistic credibility, borrowing prestige from fact-gathering without surrendering the freedoms of fiction. It's less a confession of method than a statement of authority: trust me, I've done the homework, so you can enjoy the ride.

The context matters because Sheldon was a consummate professional storyteller, moving from Broadway and Hollywood into novels that traveled globally. His mention of "the customs and attitudes of the county" (and the slightly off-kilter specificity of "county") signals a workmanlike approach to place: not postcard scenery, but social texture. He's telling you his settings are not decorative; they're engines. Authentic detail becomes a kind of narrative lubricant, making characters' choices feel inevitable and the plot's escalations feel, if not probable, at least acceptable. In a market built on speed, this is Sheldon arguing that research isn't slow - it's what makes velocity believable.