Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher.

Life is tragic but it's equally comic.

Most crime fiction, no matter how 'hard-boiled' or bloodily forensic, is essentially sentimental, for most crime writers are disappointed romantics.

All art at a certain level is entertainment. We go to a tragedy by Sophocles to be entertained.

I don't make a distinction between men and women. To me they are just people.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.

In my books you have to concentrate, but I work hard to make it that, when you do, the rewards are quite high.