I want to tell a story that makes the reader always want to see what will happen next.

Knotty theological questions are the least worrying of problems to me. Why? Because they will be resolved in the hereafter, and meanwhile they can be safely shelved.

It's great that in the German language I've sold almost 30 million books. Isn't that amazing?

I read mostly fiction, a lot of 19th-century novels.

Movies have influenced all writers, not just thriller writers.

I don't think there's any great mystery to writing female characters, so long as you talk to them. If you lived in a monastery and never met any women, maybe it would be difficult.

A very good editor is almost a collaborator.