I'd never had money growing up, and it's never been that important to me, except maybe to take our kids on a nice vacation or something like that.

The first sip of beer on a hot day is like that first finger-dip when you open a new jar of peanut butter.

I don't find any real rivalries with crime and thriller writers anyway. That might sound a little Pollyanna, but for the most part the writers I compete with, if you want to use that word, it's a pretty friendly rivalry. I think we all realise that the boat rises and sinks together.

It was one lesson he never forgot.You don't sit back when you or a loved one is being assaulted.And you don't act like the goverment with their "proportional responses" and all that nonsense.If someone hurts you,mercy and pity must be put aside,You eliminate the enemy.You scorch the earth.

Let me back up a little and tell you why I prefer writing to real life: You can rewrite. A novel, for example, can be cleaned up, altered, trimmed, improved. Life, on the other hand, is one big messy rough draft.

"So basically, that entire theory is blown to hell."Not basically," Win corrected. "Entirely."

I still try to make the "next" book my "best" book. I want to grip and move you in unexpected ways.