Every novel starts with a theme, and I am constantly looking for big ideas.

Drafting is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge.The closer you get to the end, the more you start to worry about the beginning.

...I don't have concrete plans for the future. I just think of success and keep a successful attitude. Success is 99 percent preparation. If you set yourself up for winning, rarely will you fail.

There are people who can achieve huge success in life, while adding a bit of fun and a splash of colour to this increasingly grey world.

I think the police are a major part of the glue that holds civilised life together. They're not highly paid.

Brighton is a beautiful seaside city, but it's got a dark underbelly.

I travel abroad constantly on book promotion and research, and the Internet is invaluable to me for accessing U.K. news in places such as America, which most of the time hasn't heard of England.

The biggest qualification to be a good police officer is to have a high degree of emotional intelligence.

Death is just nature's way of making room for the less experienced.

I think that Brighton, for a crime writer, is almost like a character.

If you talk to any cop, however hardened, and say, "Has anything that's ever bothered you", they'll tell you about the death of a child that they had to deal with.

Don't dare try to be heroes.

Basically, to lead without a title is to derive your power within the organisation not from your position but from your competence, effectiveness, relationships, excellence, innovation and ethics.

My dad was so much fun growing up.

The right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children is among the unalienable rights with which the Declaration of Independence proclaims 'all Men are endowed by their Creator.'

A good quotation must be a complete entity. It must be like a headline - sharp, clear, whole.

Just charge me with the usual.

You need to get up in the morning and say, 'Boy, I'm going to - in my own stupid way - save the world today.'

One of the foremost activities of the NSA's FAD, or Foreign Affairs Division, is to pressure or incentivize EU member states to change their laws to enable mass surveillance.

I think I've set some big goals. The American people haven't had a raise in 15 years. Getting incomes up is a huge goal. Now maybe it's not as exciting to some people, but it's a huge goal.

I'm not that much of a researcher. I'm good at channeling characters, and I'm good at structure.