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

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.

Christ who is your life, ' (Col 3:4): This identification reflects the relentless Christological focus of Colossians.

To make a rock'n'roll record, technology is the least important thing.

This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher. The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

Be careful what you wish for. I know that for a fact. Wishes are brutal, unforgiving things. They burn your tongue the moment they're spoken and you can never take them back.

The whole universe appears as a dynamic web of inseparable energy patterns... Thus we are not separated parts of a whole. We are a Whole.

I've never felt British. I'm just not interested in national identity. I don't know why.

One: Don't play leapfrog with elephants. Two: Don't pet a tiger unless his tail is wagging. Three: Never, ever, mess with the Ladies Auxiliary. -Mayberry Rules for a Long, Happy Life

The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives.

Somebody who is unique - and this will get me into trouble - by definition cannot be replaced.

Everything that has ever happened to you has happened for you. Not one thing that has happened is wasted... You were building strength and strength x strength = POWER.