I like emotions, but I really don't like sentimentality, and I don't like when things break their spell.

A reversal is just anything that's a surprise. It's a way of keeping the audience interested.

Everyone I know who used to be in the intelligence community is moving into the corporate world.

Ambiguity depletes as your budget rises.

I love the idea of spies in love. How would it work between two people who were so programmed to lie and be suspicious, who have a whole life based on pretence?

You have to know human behaviour … And the quality of your writing is absolutely capped at your understanding of human behaviour. You’ll never write above what you know about people.

The people in the Philippines are so extraordinarily nice.

No one can help you write. No one can teach you how to write.

Different people work different ways.

Fear changes everything. We're animals, and when we get afraid we act like animals. I'm not exempt from that.

I never really like it when other writers talk about coming in behind people and rewriting.

Some secrets are meant to be known- but once known you can never forget them.

In secondary school I was floating - I wasn't passionate about anything. I did a little sport, but it was pretty joyless because the competitiveness was too much to bear.

You may make love in dancing as well as sitting.

Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.

When you work really hard, and it's organic and together, you can have more fun.

As an actress I am always interested in the new writers.

The first of all beautiful things is the continual possession of God.

There's no straighter road to success than exceeding expectations one day at a time.

Don't be attracted to easy paths because the paths that make your feet bleed are the only way to get ahead in life.

Suspense is achieved by information control: What you know. What the reader knows. What the characters know.