Much of what we do in life has a huge component of luck.

You have very accurately described the difficulty of presenting my books on film: many of my characters are alone most of the time, and when they do talk, what they say is mostly lies. That can make for a pretty confusing film.

Being comfortable isn't the way to learn to expand your abilities.

It's important, I think, for a writer of fiction to maintain an awareness of the pace and shape of the book as he's writing it. That is, he should be making an object, not chattering.

Once you have invented a character with three dimensions and a voice, you begin to realize that some of the things you'd like him to do to further your plot are things that such a person wouldn't, or couldn't, do.

I held a variety of jobs - most notably ten years working in universities - and kept on writing.

I don't think the problem is that people don't read enough mystery books, but that people don't read.