When I wrote nonfiction, my best work was the really personal stuff.

Just because things hadn't gone the way I had planned didn't necessarily mean they had gone wrong.

I saw that my best work was my most personal work, which is odd, because my fiction is very far afield and has nothing to do with my life.

There can be something cruel about people who have had good fortune. They equate it with personal goodness.

I certainly have written a lot about police in my life, and it's not only something that I know about, but always something that interests me.

If you want to write and can't figure out how to do it, try this: Pick an amount of time to sit at your desk every day. Start with twenty minutes, say, and work up as quickly as possible to as much time as you can spare. Do you really want to write? Sit for two hours a day.

The hardest piece of nonfiction I ever wrote isn't anywhere close to the easiest piece of fiction I never wrote.