I write a thousand words a day. Nothing will stop me, I mean nothing, until the book is finished. I'm disciplined in spite of myself.

I'm sure I took some licks at the system, and at trials and lawyers in general. I've seen enough of them for so many years both as a cop and a defendant in defamation cases.

Probably 95 percent of the things that are written never get on the screen.

The O.J. Simpson case, they had no understanding of that DNA evidence, and didn't want to.

No one I know of has ever had this experience-where you had to sit and wait and wait for a DNA test to come back just so you can write the last page of the book.

It's corruption never been systemic, because a fish rots from the head

The Onion Field, that one got pretty close to me because I was a cop when it happened. I saw some of the indifference that my police department showed to the surviving officer.

The Onion Field made a real writer. And then I knew it was over, I couldn't be a cop anymore.

The serial arsonist is the most difficult to apprehend because the evidence is burned up.

I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure, being a detective again.

Today, lawyers are attacking more; they're attacking everything. A good example is the O.J. Simpson case.

He just waited until I stopped talking and said, 'Jesus, kid, you're almost a detective. All you need now is a gun, a gut, and three ex-wives. So what's your theory?

When you've been going on about something for a while, it is always satisfying to discover that other people agree with you.

The music of Africa is big sound: it's the sound of a community

Lines don't make beautiful women less beautiful

I've never felt influenced by Ernest Hemingway though I suppose there is something inevitable there.

We can love what we are, without hating what, and who, we are not.

Hold no more stocks than you can remain informed on.

You must bear in mind that each law is circumstantial. It does depend on the circumstances.

Knowledge is power...knowled ge is safety...knowle dge is happiness.