Before I start a project, I always ask myself the following question. Why is this book worth a year of my life? There needs to be something about the theme, the technique, or the research that makes the time spent on it worthwhile.

You have to follow your own voice. You have to be yourself when you write. In effect, you have to announce, 'This is me, this is what I stand for, this is what you get when you read me. I'm doing the best I can - buy me or not - but this is who I am as a writer.

When I teach writing, I have a mantra: Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.

His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew, standing by the pump of a gas station at the outskirts of Madison, Kentucky.

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

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.

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