Don't go growing a conscience on me," I said. "I've been down that road. It doesn't lead you to anything good.

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

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

There is no client as scary as an innocent man.

I've been able to write at least one book a year for 20 years, and I don't think I would've had that kind of drive if I hadn't come out of the journalism business.

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

Maybe it has something to do with being a reporter for a long time that I don't look to newspapers and television and so forth for inspiration most of the time.