Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.

Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.

What I look for in any character, good or bad, is whether I can hear him speak. If I can imagine him that clearly, then I can write about him.

If you'll think about various series you've read, can you think of any instance in which, say, the tenth volume of the series is notably better than the first nine? I can't.

I do want to write about Jane Whitefield again, but only when I have a good enough idea - something I've figured out about her that's news and that's worth a reader's time.

When I write a book, I'm making it the best book I can.

Much of what we do in life has a huge component of luck.

I do like to explore evil characters in my books.

I don't have dry seasons, because I don't allow them.

It was a lot of fun, and writing a series is comfortable. It's almost like having a secure job.

There are days when I intentionally don't write. For instance, I never write when I'm traveling, because travel is a situation where I can learn more by looking and listening than by working.

I don't think the problem is that people don't read enough mystery books, but that people don't read.

But at the same time, the commonplace statement about them is true: every character is the hero of his own story. Each has a justification for his actions that is convincing to him. It's fun to give these people voices.

I think we did a great job of putting together a program that would have made good e-books available had people been buying e-books in any real numbers.

I do try not to spend much time reading in the suspense genre.

The characters you refer to as predatory and unsavory are useful. They're the ones who make a novel into a thriller. They're active, and most of the common virtues, the signs of a good person, are not.

I do hope to bring Jane Whitefield back before too long.

I had been writing fiction since I was in eighth grade, because I loved it.

Contrary to what many writers imply about the process, nobody forces a writer to sell his work to the film industry.

You have very accurately described the difficulty of presenting my books on film: many of my characters are alone most of the time, and when they do talk, what they say is mostly lies. That can make for a pretty confusing film.

If I don't have a project going, I sit down and begin to write something - a character sketch, a monologue, a description of some sight, or even just a list of ideas.

Yes, in my books I do edit myself to keep from becoming the Village Explainer.

Once you have invented a character with three dimensions and a voice, you begin to realize that some of the things you'd like him to do to further your plot are things that such a person wouldn't, or couldn't, do.

I don't consciously do anything to maintain a unique voice.

It's important, I think, for a writer of fiction to maintain an awareness of the pace and shape of the book as he's writing it. That is, he should be making an object, not chattering.

I do have to earn a living, so I'm conscious of probable reactions from readers, but the most important one is still the awareness that if I'm not enjoying a story, the reader won't either.

Being comfortable isn't the way to learn to expand your abilities.

I held a variety of jobs - most notably ten years working in universities - and kept on writing.

All writers are mimics, and I'm not interested in picking up somebody else's style or voice.

The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.

Reading a novel in which all characters illustrate patience, hard work, chastity, and delayed gratification could be a pretty dull experience.

Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.

Secrecy is the chastity of friendship.

We may eventually come to realize that chastity is no more a virtue than malnutrition.

So long as the laws remain such as they are today, employ some discretion: loud opinion forces us to do so; but in privacy and silence let us compensate ourselves for that cruel chastity we are obliged to display in public.

Extremes, though contrary, have the like effects. Extreme heat kills, and so extreme cold: extreme love breeds satiety, and so extreme hatred; and too violent rigor tempts chastity, as does too much license.

Chastity - the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions.

Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet.

An unattempted lady could not vaunt of her chastity.

Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

Reason and justice tell me there's more love for humanity in electricity and steam than in chastity and vegetarianism.

Of all the sexual aberrations, perhaps the most peculiar is chastity.

Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.

Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society, and without it one cannot attain the Science of Life.

Filth and old age, I'm sure you will agree, are powerful wardens upon chastity.

An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.

I am neither a homosexual nor a eunuch, nor have I ever taken any vows of chastity.