Oh, so seldom does fate cast our enemy into our hands, to do with as we will

I was at La Fenice opera house back in 1991 with friends, and we started talking about a conductor whom none of us liked. Somehow there was an escalation, and we started talking about how to kill him, where to kill him. This struck me as a good idea for a book.

I never wanted to be rich or successful or famous. I just wanted to be happy and have fun.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the most liberal and illumined of the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

And off in the far distance, the gold on the wings of the angel atop the bell tower of San Marco flashed in the sun, bathing the entire city in its glistening benediction.

I just go to lunch. And I never know when something is going into the file and something is not.

So much of contemporary crime fiction is painful to read and obsessed with violence, particularly against women, and I can't read that.