Wherever God has planted you, you must know how to flower - translated from a French saying

Whether you like it or not, Paris is the beating heart of Western civilisation. It's where it all began and ended.

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.

I'm basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer.

Live today, for tomorrow we die.

I write what I call 'novels of consolation' for people who are bright and sophisticated.