I'm jealous of everyone discovering Lovesey and Diamond for the first time-you have a wonderful backlist to catch up on. Me, all I can do is wait for the next book.

Don't tell me I have latent sexism or racism that I need to confront. I don't believe that. I think we are so burned by the current situation that we want somebody that it isn't possible to have. We want someone who definitely looks like the messiah.

It took me nine months to write 60 pages. It was very frustrating

Sometimes I think I'm a one-trick pony because I'm not very inventive about new ways of telling stories.

I believe in the dull lie - make your story boring enough and no one will question it.

I realised I'd never climb Everest but thought I could still write a book

The possibility of bringing white-collar criminals to justice is ever receding over the horizon.