Aid workers, when handing out food to starving people, quickly learn that the people fighting for it at the front are the people who need it least. It's the people sitting quietly at the back, too weak to fight, who need it the most. And so too with tragedy.

What are you afraid of? I'm afraid of not recognizing Paradise.

What did falling in love do for you? Can you ever really explain it? It filled empty spaces I never knew were empty. It cured a loneliness I never knew I had. It gave me joy. And freedom. I think that was the most amazing part. I suddenly felt both embraced and freed at the same time.

Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.

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

A journalist also needs to be disciplined, and so do I. I am, essentially, lazy. Without discipline I'd be just a mass of gummy bears on the sofa instead of on book tour with my eighth novel.

It's a shame that creativity and sloth look exactly the same.