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

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.

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.

Embrace your dreams ... If you wanna be a hero, you gotta have dreams.

Metaphor is halfway between the unintelligible and the commonplace.

I grew up around jazz. I love jazz.

We are built to live in the kingdom of God. It is our natural habitat.

If I expect great things from my people, they'll go to great lengths to keep from disappointing me.

Soft drinks: The gooey, bubbly sea drowning our American children.

In the immemorial style of young men under pressure, they decided to lie down for a while and waste time.

I'm a country boy. I hate New York. But that's where things happen, so I use it as a base for stories, I know enough about it. But I have to keep going back there.

One of my favorite songs I've ever done is "Who Says," and I was 17 when I recorded that song. It was just so exactly what I felt, during that time. That's when I knew how powerful music is.

I come over here and a lot of people are like, "What's with the new hair?" I'm like, "Y'all must not have been looking - every album, I change."