I went into journalism to learn the craft of writing and to get close to the world I wanted to write about - police and criminals, the criminal justice system.

...it is how a person goes about quenching his desires or living with them unrequited that the readers get a glimpse of his true character.

The writing ethic was influenced - when you have to write every day, there's no such thing as writer's block.

I'm a disciple of Raymond Chandler, who said in his essays that there's a quality of redemption in anything that can be called art.

You can't patch a wounded soul with a Band-Aid.

That's the irony in the work: the best stories are the worst things that happen. My best times were somebody else's worst.

I'm always looking at ways of shaking up the writing experience because I think it helps.