Bookstores never seem to know where to put me on the shelves. But I do. I love my genre and I love those writers, so I am happy to be considered a crime writer. That's what I consider myself.

Smart people sometimes get stupid, but stupid people never get smart.

If you let people believe that you are weak, sooner or later you’re going to have to kill them.

And the most dangerous place on earth - Is where you’re safe.

I never think about a movie when I'm writing a book, because I think only two things could happen and both of them are bad. You write a lousy novel and a lousy film.

I start work at 5 in the morning and I have a wicked insomnia problem.

I would prefer things to be peaceful and not have conflict.

I don't recognize myself. I don't know who I am anymore." And it's all fun and games until someone loses an I.

Ridley Scott obviously an iconic director, he's made some fantastic films. Obviously a very smart, very tasteful, thoughtful guy. So yeah, I'm in good shape; got Ridley Scott with The Cartel.

I have to remind the people who put down East Coast surfing that Kelly Slater is from Florida.

Alcoholism, tobacco, drunk driving, these things will always be with us. There's always going to be a certain percentage of any population that is addicted to certain substances.

shave you mind with occam's razor everyday

I'm not good at precise, coherent argument. But plays are suited to incoherent argument, put into the mouths of fallible people.

Anyone who's really interested in anything spends time alone.

To design is to plan, to order, to relate, and to control. In short, it opposes all means of disorder and accident.

Why should architecture or objects of art in the machine age, just because they are made by machines, have to resemble machinery?

Those who remember New York in the 1970s, as I do, look back on a city that had hit a very rough patch - decaying, bankrupt, and crime-ridden. But fun.

The most basic human desire is to feel like you belong. Fitting in is important.

I still like me, inside and out. Not in a vain way - I just feel good in my skin.

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, "shake well before using." That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

The tsar [Nicholas II] is not treacherous but he is weak. Weakness is not treachery, but it fulfils all its functions.