I read very little contemporary anything.

I'm basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer.

My novels are about the European reality, not about chases. You want chases, get somebody else's books.

The printing presses of the state treasuries cranked out reams of paper currency- showing wise kinds and blissful martyrs- while bankers wept and peasants starved.

The best Paris I know now is in my head.

I grew up reading genre writers, and to the degree that Eric Ambler and Graham Greene are genre writers, I'm a genre writer.

You write a lot of books; you hope you get better.