Your obligation as writers is to distinguish yourself. … The ultimate result should be a book that you write that no one else could have written.

I have a graduate degree from Penn State. I studied at Penn State under a noted Hemingway scholar, Philip Young. I had an interest in thrillers, and it occurred to me that Hemingway wrote many action scenes: the war scenes in 'A Farewell to Arms' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' come to mind. But the scenes don't feel pulpy.

A thriller becomes great when it carries a feeling of reality and truth.

People who know various movie versions don't really know the story.

As long as thriller authors teach us about our world, they'll be relevant.

One generation's idea of fast pace might be different from a later generation's.

A thriller must be thrilling. A mystery may or may not be a thriller depending on how much breathless emotion it has, as opposed to cerebral calculation.