Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

Avoid prologues: they can be ­annoying, especially a prologue ­following an introduction that comes after a foreword.

I'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it … Interviewers have said, you like jazz, don’t you? Because we can hear it in your writing. And I thought that was a compliment.

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

I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.

A man can be in two different places and he will be two different men. Maybe if you think of more places he will be more men, but two is enough for now.

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.