I was editor of my high school literary magazine and a reporter for the school newspaper.

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

In general, I think, less is more, and that if a reader stops reading because a book is too icky then I've failed in my obligation to the readers.

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

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.

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

For me a thriller is a very carefully structured story.