I learned that lesson a long time ago. When you write popular fiction, you're going to get bashed by critics.

My name became a brand and I'd love to say it was the plan from the start. But the only plan was to keep writing books. And I've stuck to that ever since.

You burn a man's pickup, and he's ready for war.

I stopped reading William Faulkner because it's hard work. I want to read a good writer, but I also want to read something where the pages are going to move along. That's what I want. It doesn't have to be a thriller or a mystery. Just something where I get caught up in the story.

Four rehabs meant a fifth was somewhere down the road.

The worst letters come from retired high school English teachers. They will literally take a book and pick it to pieces and send me 14 pages of notes.

Please give me fifty more years of work and fun, then an instant death when I'm sleeping.