Catering is extremely demanding financially and physically. It's a business.

I'm always astonished to see how badly people can behave when they think no one is noticing.

When I started to write culinary mysteries, I did it because nobody was doing it anymore.

In a mystery, the sleuth must be believably involved and emotionally invested in solving the crime.

I like cream cheese in just about anything.

After I outlined 'Catering to Nobody,' I went and worked for a caterer. And the other thing I had to do was to talk to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department about how they investigated a crime.

I wanted to be a literary writer, so I wrote story after story and sent them to 'The New Yorker.'

One thing that improved my cooking skills was being a poor student in California... If you don't have much money, you have to learn to cook.

What one's goal should be is just to become a better writer and to tell different kinds of stories.

I told the caterer I'd work for nothing if he'd teach me about catering. I lasted one week full-time. It was exhausting.

Writing is work and cooking is relaxing.

When a child truly understands his grand potential, he looks to the stars not simply to make a wish but to chart a destination.

Every woman has a distinctive sense of beauty which is uniquely charming and euphoric.

The neighborhood stores are an important part of a city child's life.

If you follow your heart, if you listen to your gut, and if you extend your hand to help another, not for any agenda, but for the sake of humanity, you are going to find the truth.

I don't think I want to write a third book. But the more people talk to me about it, the more I think maybe I do.

I am clearer in my mind and a bit less confused than I used to be.

Don't be 'consistent,' but be simply true.

A hundredth of a second here, a hundredth of a second there-even if you put them end to end, they still only add up to one, two, perhaps three seconds, snatched from eternity.

Steve Jobs was a visionary in the technology and telecom community. His contributions to innovating communications have forever changed our industry and our lives. He will be greatly missed.

The decline of education in North America and I suppose in Western Europe makes it harder to have a common body of references.