Once we understand how they think, we can predict their behaviour. And once we predict it well, we can manipulate it. That is diplomacy.

The violence for me is never meant to be entertaining. It's meant to hurt the characters and I'm trying to show the impact it is having on the people involved with it. If there is cathartic violence at the end, then it costs the protagonist something. It's not just a blaze-of-glory moment.

There is very little sense that anybody really knows what works or why. But that's not a shock. And I don't think market research would solve that.

Women. You tell me they're not all witches, and I'll tell you you haven't been paying attention.

When you learn economy. It strips away self-indulgence. Just in the act itself it requires a certain amount of humility. You have to accept the fact that you might feel you can do better but in the moment you have to make a choice.

I wish that the act of publishing a book was less of a nerve-wracking experience.

If I saw something once that I can't explain, that doesn't make them real. And if a trick of the dark gave me a chill, that doesn't make them real. And if a madman says what's at the core of us all is a senseless, flapping quiver of black shade, that's just one more reason not to believe.