In the long run, all wrongs are righted, every minus is equalized with a plus, the columns are totaled and the totals are found correct. But that's in the long run. We must live in the short run and matters are often unjust there. The compensating for us of the universe makes all the accounts come out even, but they grind down the good as well as the wicked in the process.

When I am so intensely involved with writing my books I don't like to reread them.

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 realize now I could have gotten a whole book out of that and so I think that was a big mistake. But the truth is you write in the moment and with your head down and there is no way back then that I could have conceived of Harry having the longevity that he has had.

A really good day for me is to write my book for about four hours, go to the writing room for about four hours and then maybe come back to the book to finish the day for a few more hours of it.

What is jealousy but a reflection of your own failures?

You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more.