I love movies. Movies have influenced me as a writer.

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.

Now I'm writing about contemporary Los Angeles from memory. My process was to hang out, observe, research what I was writing about, and almost immediately go back to my office and write those sections. So it was a very close transfer between observation and writing.

I'm not 'Mr. No-By-The-Book.' I just want to make sure the character is by the book.

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.

The characters I write about are very internal.

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