Drawing Dead is a brilliant noir from one of Australia's most exciting new novelists.

Human beings are pattern-seeking animals. It's part of our DNA. That's why conspiracy theories and gods are so popular: we always look for the wider, bigger explanations for things.

The minutes ticked past. This is why peelers need a book. A wee paperback to stick in your pocket.

Who do you think's after you, Shane, my lad? Or is it just the dark you're afeared of?

more guilt, guilt, guilt. That's the Irish condition.

He was one of those characters who felt that a weak handshake could somehow damage his authority, which meant that every handshake had to bloody hurt.

I don't know if that's a year's bad luck, or if that's how it works. But stealing a Christmas tree - that can't be a good thing, karma-wise.

Now is the perfect time to start making those changes you know you need to make.

We have to keep trying things we're not sure we can pull off. If we just do the things we know we can do ... you don't grow as much. You gotta take those chances on making those big mistakes.

The house is in turmoil with records on every space. In the kitchen and in the dining room is covered with records. I don't have a big enough house to accommodate everything.

There has been a change in heroes within the working-class community

I have seldom seen much ostentation and much learning met together.

"Write that down," the King said to the jury, and the jury eagerly wrote down all three dates on their slates, and then added them up, and reduced the answer to shillings and pence.

Lasting goal achievement requires lots of time, hard work, sacrifice & dedication to a process that is maintained over years.

Perhaps the best known, and certainly the most vaunted, "discovery" of modern public opinion research is the indifference and ignorance of a majority of the electorate in western democracies.

when life gives you lemons. Make yourself a screwdriver

Who rise from flesh to spirit know the fall: The word outleaps the world, and light is all.