Just imagine walking away from something you've started. Something you really believed would be good. I don't think I could ever do that.

All interesting heroes have an Achilles heel.

I've read that it's the smell some carnivores use to find their prey. Imagine the trembling victim trying to hide, but knowing that the smell of its own fear will kill it.

As a writer, you have to believe you're one of the best writers in the world. To sit down every day at the typewriter filled with self-doubt is not a good idea.

Doubt is faith's shadow.

You can't visit readers where you think they are. You have to invite them home to where you are and try to lure them into your universe. That's the art of storytelling.

My influence is probably more from American crime writers than any Europeans. And I hardly read any Scandinavian crime before I started writing myself. I wasn't a great crime reader to begin with.

To have the chance of being loved we have to take a chance on being destroyed inside

Everything you do leaves traces, doesn't it. The life you've lived is written all over you, for those who can read.

Love is a greater mystery than death.

Love surrounds you like steam in the shower. You can't see the individual drops, but you get warm. And wet. And clean.

What am I dying for?

Respect. Have it not only for others, but also for yourself.

The power to question is the basis of all human progress.

Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.

At length corruption, like a general flood (So long by watchful ministers withstood), Shall deluge all; and avarice, creeping on, Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun.

Life can be a fearful thing. Everyone needs someone drawing alongside, saying “You can do it. Don’t quit.” Everyone needs someone who believes in them. Everyone needs encouragement.

When I get sick of what men do, I have only to walk a few steps in another direction to see what spiders do. Or what the weather does. This sustains me very well indeed.

A record is a concert without halls and a museum whose curator is the owner.

I probably get more inspiration for human stories and idiosyncrasies than I do animal stories.

Pleasures of worse natures Are gladly entertained, and they that shun us Practice in private sports the stews would blush at.