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

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

It's only a wonderful world if you can make it that way. There are no street signs pointing to Paradise Road.

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

I wrote my first real murder story as a journalist for the Daytona Beach News Journal in 1980. It was about a body found in the woods. Later, the murder was linked to a serial killer who was later caught and executed for his crimes.

I think there's a general misconception that anything written quickly lacks quality, and I don't believe that.

The setting sun burned the sky pink and orange in the same bright hues as surfers' bathing suits. It was beautiful deception, Bosch thought, as he drove north on the Hollywood Freeway to home. Sunsets did that here. Made you forget it was the smog that made their colors so brilliant, that behind every pretty picture there could be an ugly story.