The thing about Republicans is that they don't care so much about respect, but they love fear, at least in others.

I have reared, or helped to rear, five children and the scariest bit, bar none, is the learning to drive part. It has filled me with anxiety not only about the children, but also about my former self and my friends.

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

My great fear is not that I'll run out of ideas. It's that I'll run out of time.

it still astounds me, after forty years, that there is no good bread between Chicago and San Francisco.

I thought I might write mysteries for the rest of my life.