Most of us have one big idea at some point in our lives. That Eureka! moment. It comes to us all in different ways, often by chance of serendipity.

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.

Old is always fifteen years from now.

I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me

I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

We absolutely believed in Heaven and Hell, Purgatory, and even Limbo. I mean, they were actually closer to us than Australia or Canada, that they were real places.

After you eat Grandma's cookies, everything in life gets better.

Poetry is often generations in advance of the thought of its time.

The worst of guardians is a cruel ruler. Beware of becoming one of them.

Away, away, from men and towns, To the wild wood and the downs, - To the silent wilderness, Where the soul need not repress Its music.

But, you know, the Stones were my opening act in the Sixties. I loved those British guys, the way they just stood there and shook their hair.

Festivals are a time to play the songs people know and are looking forward to hearing.