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

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

I know you shouldn't spit in your own soup but I think most crime writing is like TV and doesn't make enormous demands on one's intellect.

The Germans and Austrians are very polite, the Swiss are very reserved and the Spanish usually kiss me. The Brits write me letters.

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.

favors are always for ourselves. Especially when we ask for things for other people.

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