Venetians feel affection and loyalty to their city, rather than to the Italian state.

I love music. But I've never owned a TV in my adult life, and I've never lived in a place with a television.

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 was extraordinarily lucky. I wrote a book because I wanted to see if I could write a mystery. Someone nagged me into sending it to a contest, which it won, after which I was offered a two-book contract, thus requiring the writing of a second book.

This is a fallen world. People lie, the truth gets distorted, and that's the way it is. What's for dinner ?

I never know what's going to happen in a novel. I don't have a plan or an outline.

I do not take any pleasure whatsoever in being a famous person.