A friend of mine who is in the publishing business knew I was writing a book, and he said, 'Have you said anything yet about the good guy? Because I know you spend so much time with the bad guys.' Because they're fun. So then you have to make the good guy fun, in order to compete. That's the challenge.

Never open a book with weather. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

I'm not going to write for posterity. I'm going to write to make a buck.

I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.

I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.

I spent most of my dough on booze, broads and boats and the rest I wasted.

There are 500 million people on Facebook, but what are they saying to each other? Not much.