Unfortunately for novelists, real life is getting way too funny and far-fetched.

Like Richard Price and the late, great Elmore Leonard, Matt Burgess is one of those cool, quick and funny writers who can turn a seemingly routine crime caper into something special.

The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.

The first rule of hurricane coverage is that every broadcast must begin with palm trees bending in the wind.

Sunset on the water ought to be a quiet and easy time, but I guess some people can't stand a little silence.

My escape is to just get in a boat and disappear on the water.

My driving record is not exemplary, but I have never had a speeding ticket over 100 m.p.h. I can say that unequivocally.

Disney's something to be a little alarmed about. It's not just a little theme park anymore. It's now an ethic and outlook and strategy that goes way beyond central Florida.

There is no writer's block in a newsroom. There's only unemployment block.

I've always enjoyed making people laugh. But in order for me to be funny, I have to get ticked off about something.

My humour has always come from anger, but I have to make sure I don't just get angry and jump on a soapbox.

It's a time of sorrow and sadness when we lose a loss of life.

Life is no different than the weather. Not only is it unpredictable, but it shows us a new perspective of the world every day.

I'm sure that's when you really know you are happy - when you wake up wanting to embrace your future, rather than trying to squirm away from your past.

Each shooting day is a big challenge, but it's also fun.

They were watching, out there past men's knowing, where stars are drowning and whales ferry their vast souls through the black and seamless sea.

So I'm at the wailing wall, standing there like a moron, with my harpoon.

Happiness will come through the practice of yoga and Buddhism, that happiness is not something you will lose at the end of this lifetime. It will stay with you.

My strength has always been slow songs, so I never deviated from that, I always took care of my base and that's just doing slow songs and just pouring out my heart in songs.

We are not at war (except with our own demons).

Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible.