...If I don't have twenty or thirty books right here, waiting to be read, I start jonesing. That's my compulsion.

We're all victims of what life deals out. It's how we handle it that's important.

You can't write well what you don't read for pleasure. If it doesn't entertain you, it's not going to entertain anyone else.

You know, lieutenant, you wear your weapon the way other women wear pearls." "It's not a fashion accessory.

What’s the point of playing if winning isn’t the goal?

I don't base any character on a real person, and really don't do composites either. I make them up.

No second chance?" A wry smile twisted Carrick's lips. "There might have been, had I not waited so long to take it.