I've always subscribed to an old Chinese proverb that the palest ink is better than the best memory.

When your blood is found at the murder scene, that's the end of the ball game, there's nothing more to say.

I'm sure it's very obvious . . . how upset I am with incompetence and the lack of common sense in life. If I can sum up the reason . . . it's that these characteristics are not benign. They are responsible for much, if not most, of the great problems, misery, and injustice in the world.

Even though . . . 9/11 happened because . . . Bush's FBI and CIA did not detect the Al Qaeda conspiracy . . . , Bush not only failed to apologize to the nation or the victims' survivors, he demonstrated his total lack of leadership by refusing to fire or even criticize those in these agencies who, like Bush, let this nation down. As in private life, to stimulate excellence, good performances have to be rewarded and gross negligence and incompetence punished.

I can assure the conspiracy theorists who have very effectively savaged [Gerald] Posner in their books that they're going to have a much, much more difficult time with me. As a trial lawyer in front of a jury and an author of true-crime books, credibility has always meant everything to me. My only master and my only mistress are the facts and objectivity. I have no others.

Winning is often simply getting up off the ground one more time than your opponent.

When books come out on religion today, what are they about, well, Noah's Ark or when we go to heaven, does our body or soul go to heaven? What was the name of the book? The Da Vinci Code. Who is seated at the last supper? Well, as brilliant as Da Vinci was, he didn't know anymore about who was seated at the last super if there ever was a last super than you or I or Yogi Berra. Well, no one is bringing anything new to the table.