My mother would like me to start all interviews by stating that she and my father are perfectly normal. They are proud of me, and as perplexed as anyone by my novels.

You know what the difference between a cardiac surgeon and God is? God doesn't think he's a cardiac surgeon.

When it comes to locations, I'm one of those crazy authors who has to see it, touch it, taste it, before I trust myself to recreate it for my readers. Having said that, visiting a locked-down pediatric psych ward was the most intimidating research I've ever done - and I've visited maximum security prisons, shooting galleries, bone collections, etc.

It wasn’t that strangers couldn’t hurt you. It was simply that the people you loved could do it so much better.

Men should spend less time with guns and more time in childbirth.

I'm unique for a suspense author in that I don't have a specialty background. A lot of suspense writers used to be lawyers or crime beat reporters. I didn't even know a cop when I started out. I finally figured out that I could visit prisons - I just had to be willing to make the phone calls.

Once, I was my mother's daughter. Now I am my daughter's mother.