I wanted readers to be genuinely unsure as to whether she's telling the truth or lying. It meant making her partly sympathetic, and partly unsympathetic, which wasn't easy.

All of us write wish fulfillment.

No, I'm a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don't, I don't.

Reacher said, "So here's the thing Brett. Either you take your hand off my chest, or I'll take it off your wrist.

That should be your town motto. It's all I ever hear. Like: New Hampshire, Live Free or Die. It should be: Despair, You Need To Leave Now.

I have to warn you. I promised my mother, a long time ago. She said I had to give folks a chance to walk away.

People who wear glasses, without them they always look unfocused, vulnerable. Out in the open. A layer removed.