It really sucks getting older. Sometimes I'll be walking along and I'll just glance over my shoulder to make sure nothing has fallen off.

You didn't realize what was passing you by until you slowed down a little bit to get a better look.

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

[On men:] ... you never know what they're like until you get them home and take them out of their packages.

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.

I am a bit of a Dudley Do-Gooder, though, because if I see a car accident or something bad happen, I am one of those idiots who runs toward the problem instead of away from it. Not that I would recommend this behavior.

Everybody had something horrible happen to them at one time or another in their life.