Kids tell me all the time, "I don't know how you do it, but that's us in the book." That's the kind of response you want, and I can't sacrifice it for the sake of somebody worried about censorship. You have to find a way to be truthful and honest.

I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to get something down on paper.

I've had aunts and uncles who not only haven't read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer.

Everybody sins, Francis. The terrible thing is that we love our sins. We love the thing that makes us evil.

That's what Archie did - built a house nobody could anticipate a need for, except himself, a house that was invisible to everyone else.

There are moments that stop the heart, that catch the breath, that halt the beat of blood in your veins, and you are suspended in time, held between life and death, and you wait for something to bring you back again.

I read a lot of detective stories because they always deliver. They give you a beginning, a middle, and an end - a resolution. The modern novels I read don't always deliver because I'm looking essentially for a story. As in Shakespeare, "The play's the thing." In particular I read detective stories for pacing, plot and suspense.