I think the negative traits are what makes us love other human beings, the foibles and the flaws.

People are interested in crime fiction when they're quite distanced from crime. People in Darfur are not reading murder mysteries.

To have a very strong opinion all the time is corrosive to a person's intellect. It becomes your default position.

I think graphic novels are closer to prose than film, which is a really different form.

I'd read so much right-wing crime fiction where they find the evidence and shoot the bad guy - I thought there must be another approach.

Crime fiction is the fiction of social history. Societies get the crimes they deserve.

None of us know what is going to sell or what people want to read.

In my heart Im just a lucky waitress.

There's a real emphasis on being witty in Scotland, even in crime novels.

I have two children. They are more fun than anything in the world, and it's more immediate fun than the hard slog of writing.

Journalism is a Darwinian process.

He hugged her hard. "I love you. My life is so much better with you in it than out of it.

We are all broken and wounded in this world. Some choose to grow strong at the broken places.

Conscious rebukes from doing wrong

Take heart, and do not let disappointment or shame stop you from moving forward. The true outcome of life is only apparent at the very end.

There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.

But what really happened? The answer is simple: the lovers survive and flourish.

You are never too young to lead and you should never doubt your capacity to triumph where others have not.

Futurists and common sense concur that a substantial change, worldwide, in life style and moral guidelines will soon become an absolute necessity.

The primary reason America has survived is that we have had leaders who've respected the Constitution, feared it and the rule of law, and we've been very lucky there.

James Caan told me at the end of filming 'Elf' that he had been waiting through the whole film for me to be funny - and I never was.