After I outlined 'Catering to Nobody,' I went and worked for a caterer. And the other thing I had to do was to talk to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department about how they investigated a crime.

What one's goal should be is just to become a better writer and to tell different kinds of stories.

I wanted to be a literary writer, so I wrote story after story and sent them to 'The New Yorker.'

One thing that improved my cooking skills was being a poor student in California... If you don't have much money, you have to learn to cook.

When I started to write culinary mysteries, I did it because nobody was doing it anymore.

I like cream cheese in just about anything.

I'm always astonished to see how badly people can behave when they think no one is noticing.