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

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

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

I have always had a particular antagonism for the military.

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

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.

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