You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying in the road.

If you're writing a book that takes place in New York in the moment, you can't not write about 9-11; you can't not integrate it. My main character's view is the Statue of Liberty and the Trade Center. It doesn't have to take over, but it has to be acknowledged.

I don't write police stories, per se, but I usually write about areas that are very panoramic, like Harlem, or the Lower East Side, or a small urban city like Jersey City.

Beat him, eat him and get out.

The kind of event on a conveyor belt that causes a fire occurs in a variety of industrial environments, not uniquely in coal environments.

Writers spend three years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet. It's enough to make you lose your mind day by day

The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.