the act does not create guilt unless the mind is also guilty.

Probably careful plotting reflects my personality. I am meticulous by nature. I can't imagine speed-writing anything that happens to pop into my head.

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

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.

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

Predisposition is not predestination.

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