You bring your own weather to the picnic.

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

I love stories. When I'm writing, what I pretend subconsciously is that we're cavemen, we're sitting around the fire, and I'm telling you stories. If I bore you, you're probably going to pick up a big club and hit me over the head.

You know, people call mystery novels or thrillers 'puzzles.' I never understood that, because when I buy a puzzle, I already know what it is. It's on the box. And even if I don't, if it's a 5,000-piece puzzle of the 'Mona Lisa', it's not like I put the last piece in and go, 'I had no idea it's the 'Mona Lisa'!'

Only bad writers think they're good.

You bring your own weather to the picnic.

In short, the satisfaction of creating, not necessarily the process, always lifts my heart.