My first book was the most successful debut novel in the UK ever and every one of my books has reached number one in the UK. Clearly the British know brilliance when they see it.

I've been accused of being a minimalist writer. I don't like a lot of verbiage in there.

Chance wore a white tuxedo with tails. On anyone else? Doopy. On him? Yes, please.

Death in anonymity is the ultimate insult to human dignity.

Who's going to rob us? A crackhead crab? A jellyfish junkie?

Why do all your brilliant ideas involve felonies?

I've never lost my capacity to be shocked.

Indecision is the key to flexibility.

Channel your outrage ... Do that which you are able to do.

Though a good cop, Luc Claudel has the patience of a firecracker, the sensitivity of Vlad the Impaler, and a persistent skepticism as to the value of forensic anthropology. Snappy dresser, though.

Experience is a valuable thing. It enables us to recognize mistakes when we repeat them.

Sometimes, when I couldn’t afford to pay the utility bill at the end of the month, I was forced to read by the light of the stories themselves.

Travel brings power and love back into your life.

Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?

I think that in order to struggle you have to be creative. In my life, creativity has been something that has sustained me; it awoke my spiritual struggle.

Our job is not to set things right but to see them right.

My poetry is a game. My life is a game. But I am not a game.

For they, the philosophers, were considered teachers of right living, which is far more excellent, since to speak well belongs only to a few, but to live well belongs to all.

Some people never get their feet on the ground, They're either sitting in a chair or theyre laying down.

1992 is not a year I shall look back on with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it hasturned out to be an Annus Horribilis.

You’re falling now. You’re swimming. This is not           harmless. You are not                     breathing.