Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose.

I think the great unspoken theme in noir fiction is male self-pity. It pervades noir movies.

I don't know anybody in the underworld. I make this stuff up. I don't know any criminals.

The truth of the matter is, you lose a parent to murder when you're 10 years old, and in fact at the time of the murder you hate your lost parent, my mother in my case.

I was a WASP kid going to a high school that was 99 percent Jewish and I wanted attention and I wanted to make a spectacle of myself because I couldn't stand to be ignored.

I work within the framework of a very concerted, purely driven Protestant Christian mindset. I had dark early circumstances. I went inward. I have a sturdy will. I have a big heart. I'm a decent guy. And I have a great gift. It's blunted me to the world in many ways.

And you love to read, you love to escape, right?