My favorite period is World War II, and I'm in the middle of writing my fourth novel set in that era.

Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.

I’ve worked with volunteers before,” he began. “It’s important not to… not to treat them like servants. We may feel that they are laboring to obtain a heavenly reward, and should therefore work harder than they would for money; but they don’t necessarily take that attitude. They feel they’re working for nothing, and doing a great kindness to us thereby; and if we seem ungrateful they will work slowly and make mistakes. It will be best to rule them with a light touch.

You see, all that I ever held dear has been taken from me," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And when you've lost everything-" Her facade began to crumble, and her voice broke, but she made herself carry on. "When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.

A baby was like a revolution, Grigori thought: you could start one, but you could not control how it would turn out.

What news? There's nothing to tell. I'm a nun.

An awful lot of thriller writers write women rather badly. So just doing it OK gets a lot of credit.