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

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

For me a thriller is a very carefully structured story.

It means working harder to do the research but I don't really mind - I don't think I have what it takes to chase criminals through back alleys and wade through blood at crime scenes.

I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block.

Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming.

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.

But one does not make living writing poetry unless you're a professor, and one frankly doesn't get a lot of girls as a poet.

I write pretty much anywhere - on planes, in hotel rooms, anywhere in my house.

To answer that I have to describe what I think is my responsibility as a thriller writer: To give my readers the most exciting roller coaster ride of a suspense story I can possibly think of.

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

Generally my typical books have lots of twists and turns a big surprise ending and then usually another surprise at the end and ideally, as in Garden of Beasts, we get to the very end and we find at the last few pages that there's yet another surprise.

The recent fascination, I think, reflects the shift in approach by law enforcement officials to embrace technology as wholeheartedly as the rest of the world.

Of course, I write crime stories, and I have to describe violence and the aftermath of violence.

When it comes time to write the book itself I'll shut the lights out, picture the scene I'm about to write then close my eyes and go at it. Yes, I can touch type.

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

Hardcover books are fairly expensive these days and to read one requires a significant commitment of time in our busy society. So I want to make sure that when readers buy one of my books they get something they're familiar with.

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

The best way to learn about writing is to study the work of other writers you admire.

I spend about eight months researching and outlining my book.

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

Ideally, I like to integrate the human issues into the suspense story itself.

Of course, all writers draw upon their personal experiences in describing day-to-day life and human relationships, but I tend to keep my own experiences largely separate from my stories.

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

The easy answer is that writing novels is a lot more fun than practicing law.

So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot.

The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part.

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

I liked the challenge of writing in a very concise structure in which both meaning and form are important.

Rule one: Write about settings you're familiar with.

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.

I've always written, all my life, and when I was very young I developed an interest in poetry.

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

In other words, the people who populate my books are more than caricatures.

I spend eight months outlining and researching the novel before I begin to write a single word of the prose.

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

We have years to converse with someone, to blurt and rant, to explain our desires and anger and regrets - and oh how we squander those moments.

When you use music to worship you are not attempting to entertain.

Pop music, disco music, and heavy metal music is about shutting out the tensions of life, putting it away.

When I did the record, I was coming off a time when my contract had been sold and the music industry had changed a lot. I didn't understand how to make records for big labels. I was waiting for a new kind of record label to emerge.

You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

Whether I'm doing music or I'm walking down the street or I'm in a record store buying a record or I walk into a comic store and I'm buying comics or having a drink with my friends, it's the same me.

When rock came along the lyrics and melodies became less important and it bothered me to think that perhaps they might not regain the value they have to music - they are music.

I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.

The kind of music or the kind of arrangements that I do, the kind of musicians I choose, is just what I like to hear.

If not for music, I would probably be a very frustrated scientist. It's one way to answer the question, 'What is the meaning of life?' I feel music answers it better.

Since I'm allergic to various things, the army wouldn't accept me during the war, and I got into the Office of War Information, which sent music to Europe.