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

I am a voracious reader myself. I don't stick to one genre. My only criteria is that it's a good story. I try to bring that to my work because I think people can read your excitement about a story.

Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.

I'm sold as a literary writer in Holland; I'm sold as crime fiction in England. I think of it as just literature.

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.

I grew up reading crime fiction and, especially in the '80s, women were just there to be saved or screwed.

I have a few unusual fans, as you can imagine, so I try to protect the privacy of my home life.