Readers are paramount. I live to write books for them.

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

People with children and people with their own business always pick up a ringing phone.

I liked the challenge of writing in a very concise structure in which both meaning and form are important.

Trying to write books with a subject matter or in a genre or style you're not familiar with is the best way to find the Big Block looming.

I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth.

In other words, the people who populate my books are more than caricatures.