There was nothing more dangerous than people convinced of their own good intentions.

Reading was not a fallback position for her but an ideal state of being.

I'm a morning person, which is a hideous thing to be. No one likes morning people, not even other morning people.

Anyone can love a perfect place. Loving Baltimore takes some resilience.

I think I'm part of a generation of crime writers all of whom woke up independently and recoiled with horror at the fact that we'd chosen this very conservative genre.

stinginess seemed instinctive to him. Darwinian even. He hadn't gotten to his current size by sharing.

There's always time to read. Don't trust a writer who doesn't read. It's like eating food prepared by a cook who doesn't eat.

Children can be happy when their parents are miserable. But a parent is never happier than her unhappiest child.

Whatever you want, at any moment, someone else is getting it. Whatever you have, someone else is longing for.

Reporting is pretty vital to me. It keeps me connected to the world. A 40-hour-per-week day job may be less feasible as time goes on.

I like to see writers reach bigger and bigger audiences, and stand-alones have allowed some of them to do just that.

When we give up our dreams then we are merely existing and not living.

It takes a huge amount of culture to normalize "crazy", and of course that's its main focus

I believe all photographers want to be remembered for their images. They reflect a piece of their soul.

All is waiting and all is work; all is change and all is permanence.

How do we protect the soul of democracy against bad theology in service of an imperial state?

I'm not lost, because I haven't any idea where to go that I might get lost on the way to. I'd like to get lost, because then I'd know where I was going, you see.

You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard is the way up and down another man's stairs.

That idea of escapism... these words could sum up my life.

Look at the subject as if you have never seen it before. Examine it from every side. Draw its outline with your eyes or in the air with your hands, and saturate yourself with it.

Honeybees depend not only on physical contact with the colony, but also require it's social companionship and support. Isolate a honeybee from her sisters and she will soon die.