A newspaper is the center of a community, it's one of the tent poles of the community, and that's not going to be replaced by Web sites and blogs.

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.

The knowledge that God lives in us will destroy all the limitations in the mind of those who have the name of Christ, but yet are weak

My flute, M. Poirot, is my oldest companion. When everything else fails, music remains.

The only true wisdome is knowing you know nothing.

Men are more visual creatures and rate women based on looks. We like to laugh and be shown a good time. I've never rated anyone on looks.

The computer age has arrived, and it influences everything: analysis, preparation, information. Now a different talent is required - the ability to synthesize ideas.

It is a poor, unwise and very imbecile people who cannot take care of themselves.

Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.

Maybe the reason I've never died in this story is that I've never had something worth dying for before.

I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed ... I'm networking. I have my sight on a particular job.

Q: Prove God doesn’t exist. A: That’s a tough one. Show me how it’s done by proving Zeus and Apollo don’t exist, and I’ll use your method.