I never know what I'm going to write next, and when I think I do I usually turn out to be mistaken.

I don't know about the rest of the country but in New York more people have learned anonymity from rent control than ever discovered it in a twelve-step program.

Ideas come to people who are receptive to them.

I think persistence in the face of adversity is an essential part of a writer’s job description. If you don’t care enough about it to avoid being easily disheartened that way, you really should be doing something else.

I've always essentially been a New Yorker.

It's the easiest thing in the world to know God's will. You just wait and see what happens, and that's it.

Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust-these are the books you'll want on that desert island.