McKinty is an exciting new talent.

The world is made of stairs, and there are those who go up and those who go down.

It seemed to me... that the only valid people to deal with crime were cops, and I would like to make the lead character, rather than a single person, a squad of cops.

Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's as if another writer is on the scene.

I try to keep all my novels in print. Sometimes publishers don't agree with me as to their worth.

I've never been a cop nor hope to be a cop, thanks.

I wanted to be an artist. I was studying art. I wanted to be a great painter. When I went into the Navy, there wasn't much to draw at sea. So I began writing, and I began reading a lot.

Its a matter of style. The Evan Hunter style and the Ed McBain style are very, very different.

Changing writing styles is like an actor taking on a different part.

Readers are what it's all about, aren't they? If not, why am I writing?

I know that all cops are not sterling characters. But you have to have someone to root for. I balance it with rotten cops who will take a bribe, who will beat somebody up.

She was the curator of her marriage, collector of swift quotes and unremarked-upon sensations.

Church was never meant to be a place for gods to gather, but for devils wanting to shed their horns for halos.

I needed nothing and was needed nowhere. I almost doubted I was alive.

Every man's road in life is marked by the graves of his personal likings.

If you push hard enough you can change. You can take everything you know and round it up, turn it into something else, and keep turning things into something else.

I constantly make fashion mistakes but I think it's good to take risks.

As a native Washingtonian, I am well aware that childhood obesity is a real problem in our nations capital.

I'm not smart enough and I don't know enough about what's going on.

We made more money feeding molasses, urea, and corn cobs to cattle than we ever did feeding dent corn.

There's some ill planet reigns: I must be patient till the heavens look With an aspect more favourable.