When I'm working on a novel of my own, I try to read mostly nonfiction, although sometimes I break down and peek at something else.

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.

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

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

This was not [him]. It was a thing, with all the [him]-ness gone from it. Death takes the person and leaves his shell behind, like a hollowed-out tree.

Let's live our lives with great meaning and purpose in the attempt to influence the world to whatever degree our circumstance allows.

I write for ghosts

For years I did take my time, but that was because I hated waiting to hit shots - I adopted a pace where I didn't have to stand by my ball and wait.

I bought me a guitar about a year ago, learned how to play in a day or so.

I've looked at the world for quite a few years now and I've found that if I don't laugh, I'll probably end up crying." - Prince Kheldar of Drasnia

...you spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young. Rules change along the way. The first things to go are those things you thought were eternal.

It is well for us to pause, to acknowledge our debt to those who paid so large a share of freedom's price.

The reason we write fiction is because it's so much easier to exist spending part of each day in an imaginary world.

There are only so many notes so there must be only so many melodies.