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

Why did people manufacture trouble when there was already so much of it in the world?

I am very fond of Edith Wharton. She's quite high brow but also a great storyteller. My favorite is 'The House of Mirth.' I also like 'The Reef.

We’re all good when it suits us, he used to say: that doesn’t count. It’s when you want so badly to do something wrong—when you’re about to make a fortune from a dishonest deal, or kiss the lovely lips of your neighbor’s wife, or tell a lie to get yourself out of terrible trouble—that’s when you need the rules. Your integrity is like a sword, he would say: you shouldn’t wave it until you’re about to put it to the test.

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

He had been granted his life's wish-but conditionally.

She wanted to say 'I love you like a thunderstorm, like a lion, like a helpless rage'.