Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.

Capo, my first golden retriever, so loved to swim she once jumped off a cliff to get into Lake Superior.

I have a friend who lives in the South Side of Chicago. I helped out at a church charity there where they try to give a bit of cohesion to a desperate area. Everyone was very welcoming.

I live and die with the Chicago Cubs.

No agent wants to see a book until he or she has decided whether to pursue the relationship.

I love to sing. I'm a soprano.

The best source for finding an agent is called Literary Agents of North America. It's a complete list of agents, not only by name and address, but by type of book they represent and by what their submission criteria are.

I thought it was time for a tough, smart, likable female private investigator, and that's how VI came to life.

Reviewers said Ghost Country was rich, astonishing and affecting in the way it blended comedy, magic, and a gritty urban realism in a breathtaking ride along Chicago's mean streets.

I realised I'd never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book.

Around the time I turned 30, I wanted to publish a novel.

Write what you care about.

I'm a daydreamer.

The crime novel has always been my favourite genre.

My parents were liberal intellectuals but even they expected me to stay at home and look after my younger siblings and do the housework.

I grew up in conservative rural Kansas in the 1950s when it was expected that girls would not have a life outside the home, so educating them was a waste of time.

I spent 10 years as a marketing manager. I've found my experience in the financial world invaluable background for writing about white-collar crimes.

It took me nine months to write 60 pages. It was very frustrating.

I went to college at the University of Kansas, where I got a degree in political science.

Sometimes I think I'm a one-trick pony because I'm not very inventive about new ways of telling stories.

I'm a grandmother, and a mighty proud one.

Sisters in Crime now has more than 4,000 members worldwide.

I always wrote; my first story was published in the magazine The American Girl when I was 11.

Most people don't have the money to spend on advertising to create awareness among readers, nor do they have the contacts at newspapers or magazines to get their books reviewed.

I'm very honoured that there is a loyal following and I hope it continues.

Sometimes I panic and think I can't really write.

White-collar crime gets more outrageous by the second in America.

I'm lucky in having found the perfect partner to spend my life with.

I had wanted to write Ghost Country for a long time, but it wouldn't work.

The possibility of bringing white-collar criminals to justice is ever receding over the horizon.

People have less privacy and are crammed together in cities, but in the wide open spaces they secretly keep tabs on each other a lot more.

I wish I could remember where I put things. I spend half my life looking for my keys. With the other half I look for my glasses.

You get weird and unsettling behaviour in the country.

In 1986 we were trying to help women get in print, stay in print, and come to the attention of booksellers and libraries. At that time, books by men mystery writers were reviewed seven times as often as books by women.

Live disasters are wonderful attractions when youre safe on the other side of them.

When you feel lousy, puppy therapy is indicated.

'Five, Six, Seven, Nate!' opens on my 13-year-old protagonist packing up a duffel bag and bidding his Midwestern town goodbye, heading off to start rehearsals for his New York City debut in 'E.T.: The Musical.'

I don't want actors to know anything. The more they are lost, the better they play.

I want to separate from the Palestinians. I want them to have their independent, separate state on a contiguous territory, and I want Israel to exist, of course, as a Jewish state in its own territory, as an independent state in its own territory. The Palestinian state, the Israeli state, separate. This is my dream.

Honesty is the best policy.

The same words conceal and declare the thoughts of men.

Holiness is found in how we treat others not in how we contemplate the cosmos. As our experiences in marriages families and friendship teach us it takes relationships to provide the friction that wears down our rough edges and sanctifies us.

To be well turned out, a woman should turn her thoughts in.

I always loved reading. Growing up, my favorite book was 'A Child's Garden of Verses,' by Robert Louis Stevenson.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

When the past is forgotten the present is unforgettable

Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.

I felt that the elegance of pop music was that it was reflective: we were holding up a mirror to our audience and reflecting them philosophically and spiritually, rather than just reflecting society or something called 'rock and roll.'

Corn is a greedy crop, as farmers will tell you.