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.

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.

We move through time like a man in a rowboat, looking back even as we move forward.

Genes are not simple triggers. No one is hardwired to commit murder or any other crime. Our actions are always the result of stupendously complex gene-environment interactions, and environment is likely to remain the more important influence by far.

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

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

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