Collins masterfully blends fact and fiction...transcends the historical thriller.

For me a thriller is a very carefully structured story.

You think publishing is tough but the music world is ten times tougher.

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

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.

That's the past for you. Not only does it come back at the most unexpected, and inconvenient, times but it's set in stone.

Too much screaming in Congress. Too much screaming everywhere.