Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.

Keeping libraries open, giving access to all children to all books is vital to our nation's sovereignty.

Every successful author I know faced crushing rejection early on, and they got back up and kept going.

I'm afraid of the general things that everyone is afraid of: a bump in the night that could be a cat or Death dragging his sickle across the room; losing my health; becoming homeless, never meeting George Clooney.

Alafair Burke understands the criminal mind. Long Gone is both an education and an entertainment of the first order. This is a very clever and very smart novel by a very clever and smart writer. The dialogue crackles, the plot is intriguing, and the pacing is perfect.

Being a Southerner, Im interested in sex, violence, religion and all the things that make life interesting.

Like every Southern writer, I thought that I needed to write the next Gone With the Wind.