Foolish people are never harmless. Stupidity accounts for as many crimes as anger and greed.

Myrna could spend happy hours browsing bookcases. She felt if she could just get a good look at a person’s bookcase and their grocery cart, she’d pretty much know who they were.

A good journalist, as you know, is a great listener. And so's a good writer. And I got to listen to people for almost 20 years. That serves me well, I hope, when I try to understand how a character might be feeling, or how they might react.

I've seen enough successful writers who no longer seem to care when they are recognized with an award, and I think that's just tragic.

But you want murderous feelings? Hang around librarians," confided Gamache. "All that silence. Gives them ideas.

Where there is love there is courage, where there is courage there is peace, where there is peace there is God. And when you have God, you have everything.

To be honest, the only thing I ever really wanted to be was a writer - since I read 'Charlotte's Web' as a child.