The Archer novels are about various kinds of brokenness.

The delicate sensitivity of a frightened rattlesnake.

The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world of disasters.

When there's trouble in a family, it tends to show up in the weakest member. And all the other members of the family know that. They make allowances for the one in trouble.

We writers, as we work our way deeper into our craft, learn to drop more and more personal clues. Like burglars who secretly wish to be caught, we leave our fingerprints on broken locks, our voiceprints in bugged rooms, our footprints in the wet concrete.

An ugly woman with a gun is a terrible thing.

There are certain families whose members should all live in different towns - different states, if possible - and write each other letters once a year.