Deep in my heart it still feels like I'm a journalist even though I haven't worked for a paper and carried a press pass for 14 years.

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.

I believe in magick because I am proof. A soul can be crushed into powder, yet dares to rise in love.Hope is a magick of it's own-And I it's most natural object of passion and power.

I don't recall having any self-awareness about the intricacy of my stories.

We are interconnected.

To a heart formed for friendship and affection the charms of solitude are very short-lived.

Never run from what you don't understand, as it will be waiting for you every time you come to a stop.

You cannot teach what you don't know. You cannot give energy if you're not on fire on the inside.

The land is dearer for the sea, The ocean for the shore.

It is well for people who think, to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean.

What luxury would I take to a desert island? A mirror. It's true. I'd miss me.

I've been amazed that it's so popular with people. But it's been fantastic. People are very excited when I walk into a place and they recognize me from the series.