When I am so intensely involved with writing my books I don't like to reread them.

There is no client as scary as an innocent man.

If the system turns away from the abuses inflicted on the guilty, then who can be next but the innocents?

I think books with weak or translucent plots can survive if the character being drawn along the path is rich, interesting and multi-faceted. The opposite is not true.

You can't patch a wounded soul with a Band-Aid.

You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more.

I think I would spend the first 30 weeks not writing, just clearing my head and seeing parts of the world I haven't seen and going back to places I have seen and love.

I went into journalism to learn the craft of writing and to get close to the world I wanted to write about - police and criminals, the criminal justice system.

There is nothing you can do about the past except keep it there.

I'm a disciple of Raymond Chandler, who said in his essays that there's a quality of redemption in anything that can be called art.

Any writer would rather dig into character than dig into fancy plots.

Solitude is a greater treasure than wealth.

Sometimes she wondered if the shape of his eyes affected how he saw things. That was probably the most racist question of all time.

I have been in love, and in debt, and in drink, this many and many a year.

Everytime i have turned the page he re-enters my life as awkward as postscript

There is no word in the English language for the feeling someone gets when they suddenly realize they're standing next to an unholy monster impersonating a human. Monstralization, maybe?

Those who advocate devaluation are calling for a reduction in the wage levels and the real wage standards of every member of the working class.

This is the last of earth! I am content.

I don't believe in miracles. I believe in character

Peace is impossible, war is improbable.

I like to do my research, get in the right mental state for the person I'll be portraying. A lot of time, it's just incorporating a lot of what that person would be into, into my daily routine.