The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part.

In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.

I spend eight months outlining and researching the novel before I begin to write a single word of the prose.

I think a lot of young aspiring writers get misdirected; they think 'I ought to write this, even though I enjoy reading that'. What you have to do is write what you enjoy reading.

When you work alone, you need to socialize at some level.

Robert Rotenberg does for Toronto what Ian Rankin does for Edinburgh.

I've worked for law firms, I've worked for corporations, and for the past 20 years, I've been writing working for myself, and believe me it's a lot better. That's a big part of the James Bond panache, that you're responsible, 100 percent responsible, for the success or failure of your mission in life, whatever it is.