Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled.

I was looking forward to having a halo. It would make such a convenient reading lamp.

I think it's the people who have no doubt that every word they put down is gold that probably don't write very well.

Grief is a healthy emotion, and it's healthy to embrace it. By accepting loss, we clarify our values and the meaning of our lives.

I always enjoyed the kids, but I didn't enjoy the bureaucracy of the educational system.

On those occasions when he had killed in the dark, he later needed to see his victims' faces because, in some unlit corner of his heart, he half expected to find his own face looking up at him, ice-white and dead-eyed. "Deep down," the dream-victim had said, "You know that you're already dead yourself, burnt out inside. You realize that you have far more in common with your victims after you've killed them than before.

It was one of those rare times when remembering the dead was more inmportant than tending to the needs of the living.