I was in television drama, which is a first cousin to the movies, and I trust myself to make the right decisions.

You see something scary, you should stand up and step toward it, not away from it. Instinctively, reflexively, in a raging fury.

The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end.

I went to college. West Point is technically a college.

I love visiting LA. It's an endlessly fascinating city, and is, of course, America's entertainment capital. Each time I go, I fall in love with it all over again. That said, it's not the sort of place I'd want to live.

Many years from now when your children ask what New York City was like just after 9/11, this will be the book you give them in response. It's an exquisite novel full of heart, soul, passion and intelligence, and it's the one this great New York author was born to write.

Evaluate. Long experience had taught me to evaluate and assess. When the unexpected gets dumped on you, don’t waste time. Don’t figure out how or why it happened. Don’t recriminate. Don’t figure out whose fault it is. Don’t work out how to avoid the same mistake next time. All of that you do later. If you survive.