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.

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.

Theories come and go, but fundamental data always remain the same.

I like to play blackjack. I'm not addicted to gambling. I'm addicted to sitting in a semi-circle.

I love clothes. I can't control myself. I have a huge fetish for shoes and clothes and make-up. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to wear things over and over again.

I'm not comfortable being around too many people. I don't like being out in public too much. I don't like going to bars. I don't like doing celebrity stuff. So most of the characters I play are people who don't always feel comfortable beyond their small circle of friends.

I know a girl who cries when she practices violin because each note sounds so pure it just cuts into her, and then the melody comes pouring out her eyes. Now, to me, everything else just sounds like a lie.

The truth is that everyone is bored and devotes himself to cultivating habits.

I saw the Supremes when they were still singing in little black skirts and white blouses.

Your landscape in a western is one of the most important characters the film has. The best westerns are about man against his own landscape.

Who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.

Art historians agree that Da Vinci's paintings contain hidden levels of meaning that go well beneath the surface of the paint. Many scholars believe his work intentionally provides clues to a powerful secret... a secret that remains protected to this day by a clandestine brotherhood of which Da Vinci was a member.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

You just keep going and going. You go as fast as you want. I just like coming out here and doing it.

We've all seen the power music has to spread messages of solidarity and hope.

I think it is very natural to want to be partnered, but you never know. you read about mature love affairs in the press, and it gives you hope. You think: 'Well, it's not impossible.'

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall.

If you get a dog that goes out there and bumps the sheep, comes on too hard, the sheep don't trust him.

We found on our journey, as well as in the place where we stopped, that they treated us with as much confidence and good-will as if they had known us all their lives.

I don't just want to be another cog in the gears of Hollywood.

We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.