Life may not always fall into neat chapters, and you may not always get the satisfying ending you're looking for, but sometimes a good explanation is all the rewrite you need.

In real life, coincidences happen all the time. In novels, they are leapt upon with fury.

Tragedy is a hell of a teacher. It's much too strict, but it's a hell of a teacher.

I try to stress to my children that buying something never leads to true happiness.

That's what a good crime novelist - any good novelist - should do with you: play with your perceptions while showing you everything in plain sight.

I once worked as a tour guide in the Costa del Sol of Spain.

No, I don’t live in heartache. I don’t cry myself to sleep or any of that. I am, I tell myself, over it. But I do feel a void, icky as that sounds. And—like it or not—I still think about her every single day.