There is nothing like the start of a season, before all the one-run losses, pitching breakdowns and missed opportunities. Before reality sets in.

The best crime novels are not about how a detective works on a case; they are about how a case works on a detective.

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

What is jealousy but a reflection of your own failures?

A newspaper is the center of a community, it's one of the tent poles of the community, and that's not going to be replaced by Web sites and blogs.

Momentum was momentum, whether you found it in music or on the street or in the beat of your own heart.

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