Robert Rotenberg does for Toronto what Ian Rankin does for Edinburgh.

I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth.

You think publishing is tough but the music world is ten times tougher.

Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.

Readers are paramount. I live to write books for them.

If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say

In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.

I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper.

When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level.

My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about.

I like the way words go together and I like the gamesmanship of writing poetry. It is such a challenge.

I do not mind when you tell me what you want and put that first instead of last.

From our primary schools to secondary schools, to tertiary institutions, there must be a mass campaign to educate our people in the value of labour.

At some point we must make a decision not to allow the mere threat of charges of cultural or religious insensitivity to stop us from dealing with this evil

It takes some living to discover that the living itself is one's life, that life is not a goal to attain but a possession to relish.

One day I had to sit down with myself and decide that I loved myself no matter what my body looked like and what other people thought about my body. I got tired of hating myself.

The ability to make witty observations is commonly refered to as "cynism" by people who lack it.

We need moral leadership and courage in our world.

Small business, right down to the individual can beat big, bureaucratic companies ten times out of ten.

Alone-in moments of prayer or meditation, or simply in stillness-we breathe more deeply, see more fully, hear more keenly. We notice more, and in the process, we return to what is sacred.

Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don't take yourself so seriously.