I know that all cops are not sterling characters. But you have to have someone to root for. I balance it with rotten cops who will take a bribe, who will beat somebody up.

The world is made of stairs, and there are those who go up and those who go down.

It seemed to me... that the only valid people to deal with crime were cops, and I would like to make the lead character, rather than a single person, a squad of cops.

Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's as if another writer is on the scene.

I try to keep all my novels in print. Sometimes publishers don't agree with me as to their worth.

I've never been a cop nor hope to be a cop, thanks.

I wanted to be an artist. I was studying art. I wanted to be a great painter. When I went into the Navy, there wasn't much to draw at sea. So I began writing, and I began reading a lot.

Its a matter of style. The Evan Hunter style and the Ed McBain style are very, very different.

Changing writing styles is like an actor taking on a different part.

Readers are what it's all about, aren't they? If not, why am I writing?

We need leaders who can reflect theologically and help develop more robust thinking that understands how context affects our understanding of God, humankind, the fall, and redemption.

Peace is not the absence of poverty But the presence of love for beauty

It was the kind of country that made you feel better about yourself.

It was a two-gallon Styrofoam cooler - one of the cheap ones that you can pick up at any service station in the summer season and then listen to it squeak to the point of homicidal dementia.

It's not the gifts you don't have that hold you back as much as the gifts you do have that you don't use.

To restore America's competitiveness, we must recruit a new generation of science and technology leaders by investing in diversity.

Many of those who scoff at the trustworthiness of the Bible do so completely overlooking the fact that thousands of archaeological discoveries have affirmed the historical reliability of the Bible.

It seems to me that we become more dear one to the other, in together admiring works of art, which speak to the soul by their true grandeur.

I know absolutely nothing about music.

I love the band Haim. I would love to do something with them.

As soon as I got funny, I killed any majestic intentions in my work.