The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that when you look into the darkness of the abyss the abyss looks into you. Probably no other line or thought more inspires or informs my work.

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.

Even if it's meaningless . . . sometimes, nice things happen.

Ok.. So are you goin’a let him bluetube your tweeter?

Recreation and diversion are as necessary to our well-being as the more serious pursuits of life.

Try not to wake up on fire.

When I went to my parents I was at the University of Wisconsin, and I just couldn't wait anymore to go be an actress.

Sometimes players need to gain time on the clock by repeating the position, but most often its purpose is to wear down the opponent psychologically.

I just love having no clothes on outside, and the only time to do that is when the sun's shining. It's a wonderful sensation to not have any clothes on.

Though I love the luxury of the Waldorf Towers, room service there doesn't do soul food.

Grace has uprooted us from a barren wilderness of sin and transplanted us by streams of living water.

In my life why do I smile at people I'd rather kick in the eye?