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

There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees. And there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living.

I don't judge in my books. I don't have to have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It's just how it comes out. I'm just telling a story.

I get letters. I get several a week, I think. A lot of people want a picture, a lot of people just want an autograph.

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.

Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.

If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.