I grew up reading genre writers, and to the degree that Eric Ambler and Graham Greene are genre writers, I'm a genre writer.

Politicians were like talking dogs in a circus: the fact that they existed was uncommonly interesting, but no sane person would actually believe what they said

Whether you like it or not, Paris is the beating heart of Western civilisation. It's where it all began and ended.

You can't make accommodations in crucial situations and be heroic.

Wherever God has planted you, you must know how to flower - translated from a French saying

If you can live in Paris, maybe you should.

Live today, for tomorrow we die.

I have a very serious censorship office inside my head; it censors things that I could tell you that you would never forget, and I don't want to be the person to stick that in your brain.

The best Paris I know now is in my head.

Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.

One is what one has the nerve to pretend to be.

Right now I've got just two rules to live by.Rule one: don't taunt elephants.Rule two: don't stand next to anybody who taunts elephants.-Sergeant Schlock

I had a whole evening planned. I was hoping to sweep you off your feet. Like those guys in your stupid books.

If you don’t want anyone to misunderstand you, go into yourself and thoroughly investigate and understand yourself. No one will ever misunderstand you ever again.

The only real escape from hell is to conquer it.

Every gain made by individuals or society is almost instantly taken for granted.

Here's kind of my motto - if you're not happy at home, you're not happy anywhere else.

The paradox of romantic love -- that what one possesses, one can no longer desire -- was at work.

You might be a redneck if your wheelbarrow breaks and it takes four relatives to figure out how to fix it.

If he smiled much more, the ends of his mouth might meet behind, and then I don't know what would happen to his head! I'm afraid it would come off!

It is clear to me that my life has become completely unmanageable because I am addicted to alcohol and drugs.