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

I never felt isolated; I just liked being alone. I think that some people are good at being alone, and some people arent, and as a child, I really liked it.

The plot is very important because writers have to play fair with their readers, but no one would care about the plot if the character work wasn't there. So, basically every book I work on starts with me thinking not just about the bad thing that's going to happen, but how that bad thing is going to ripple through the community, the family of the victim, and the lives of the investigators. I am keenly aware when I'm working that the crimes I am writing about have happened to real people. I take that very seriously.

You can only make decisions with the information you have at the time

Usually, guys, when something bad happens, they punish someone else.

When a woman creates an unlikable character, a lot of people think it's a mistake.

I'm not somebody who believes in evil.