I think the only boundaries are individual and personal. A writer should be free to write about anything he or she wants to, including the twin towers. I have made small references to 9/11 in my past two books.

Any writer would rather dig into character than dig into fancy plots.

I feel I'm functioning at some level as a journalist because even though I write fiction, I'm trying to get the world accurate.

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.

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

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

Write every day even if it is just a paragraph.