I love sports, as all Bostonians seem to. I love books and movies, as all writers seem to.

no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed

Damage hardens us all. It will harden you too, when it finds you—and it will find you

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

You can write a great book and be ignored. Literary history is full of classics that were under-appreciated in their own time.

An emotion is a thought, yes, an idea, but it is also a sensation, an ache in your body. Desire, love, hate, fear, repulsion - you feel these things in your muscle and bones, not just in your mind.

When I was 30 or so - by that time I had become an assistant D.A. - I decided I would try to write a novel. To be clear: I did not decide to become a novelist. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that I could actually earn a living as a professional novelist.