She was reflecting back on a truth she had learned over the years: that people heard what they wanted to hear, saw what they wanted, believed what they wanted.

She believed not in divine salvation but in the proposition that we poor mortals are fully capable of saving ourselves, if conditions and inclinations are right, and the evidence of this potential is found in the smallest of gestures, like the uncertain resting of a large hand on a bony shoulder.

I write pretty much anywhere - on planes, in hotel rooms, anywhere in my house.

If you have a craftsman's command of the language and basic writing techniques you'll be able to write - as long as you know what you want to say

My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about.

It's becoming apparent that I like bad boys. That's one of my problems. They've all been bad boys. You're one too. You're a bad boy. But, I think you're a good bad boy.

But one does not make living writing poetry unless you're a professor, and one frankly doesn't get a lot of girls as a poet.