Crime and legal stories, broadly speaking, are just where my interest happens to lie.

Probably careful plotting reflects my personality. I am meticulous by nature. I can't imagine speed-writing anything that happens to pop into my head.

I love sports, as all Bostonians seem to. I love books and movies, as all writers seem to.

The interior of a teenager’s mind is an endless war between Stupid and Clever.

Predisposition is not predestination.

An emotion is a thought, yes, an idea, but it is also a sensation, an ache in your body. Desire, love, hate, fear, repulsion - you feel these things in your muscle and bones, not just in your mind.

no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed

You know, being confident isn't the same as being right.

We move through time like a man in a rowboat, looking back even as we move forward.

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

You can write a great book and be ignored. Literary history is full of classics that were under-appreciated in their own time.

Loneliness is better than bad company.

Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is 'to fit together' and we all do this every day.

Men are much more agressive with their advances.

Nothing exists but atoms and the void.

God makes many poets, but he only gives utterance to a few.

Except if it has some historical meaning for them to have Tibet under their control. I don't understand why [ Chinese] want it so much.

Folks don't like to have somebody around knowing more than they do.

I am not an American. I am the American.

The great advantage of a new friend is that we have not yet found one another out.

I decided to always sing in the back with the chorus and never went up front because I had trouble performing.