I'm a pretty harsh critic when it comes to my own stuff or things that come from my work.

There is no client as scary as an innocent man.

If the system turns away from the abuses inflicted on the guilty, then who can be next but the innocents?

I think books with weak or translucent plots can survive if the character being drawn along the path is rich, interesting and multi-faceted. The opposite is not true.

You can't patch a wounded soul with a Band-Aid.

You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more.

I think I would spend the first 30 weeks not writing, just clearing my head and seeing parts of the world I haven't seen and going back to places I have seen and love.

I went into journalism to learn the craft of writing and to get close to the world I wanted to write about - police and criminals, the criminal justice system.

There is nothing you can do about the past except keep it there.

I'm a disciple of Raymond Chandler, who said in his essays that there's a quality of redemption in anything that can be called art.

Any writer would rather dig into character than dig into fancy plots.

My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life.

I like the feeling of words doing as they want to do and as they have to do.

It is quite futile to argue that man is small compared to the cosmos

I'm going to be a great leader of this generation.The stars in the space up there are my witnesses.

I think we love watching people that are flawed because we're all flawed.

People in the computer industry use the term 'user,' which to them means 'idiot.'

The bottom line of comedy is to be funny, and the bottom line of drama is to be truthful. You can be truthful and funny, but if you're not truthful in a drama than the audience leaves you.

The secret of happiness is the determination to be happy always, rather than wait for outer circumstances to make one happy.

May the trees continue to thrive and flourish on this earth, filling our hearts with joy and inspiration.

Peter will have a place in this brotherhood forever.