I still have a stammer that I can control by not opening a sentence with a hard consonant, or by concentrating for a moment, breathing softly down. Growing up, the 'Our Father' was lovely, made for me, the 'Hail Mary' was gorgeous, and 'Glory Be to the Father' was an absolute nightmare.

Writing tends to be very deliberate. A novelist could probably run a military campaign with some success. They could certainly run a country.

History is a way of interpreting, rather than, say, knowing, the past. It is usually a set of disputes between those who have access to the same sources. It depends on ideology as much as voting in an election does.

Between the ages of 8 and 12 it was difficult to know what my father was saying, and he moved very slowly, and then he died.

If you have a fantastic idea you're really passionate about and are making $100,000 in your job, if you can set aside some of that to invest in servers or contractors or other folks, that's actually the best way to start a business in my opinion.

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.

You always have to evolve - the minute you start building a moat around you to keep yourself safe, you're going to lose.

Since my romance novels had all been thrillers as well, it wasn't such a leap for me to move into the straight thriller genre. The most difficult part, I think, was being accepted as a thriller writer. Once you've written romance, unfortunately, critics will never stop calling you a 'former romance author.'