I ought to be more hardboiled; I'd like to be. I don't think I have it in me. To write in clipped sentences. To employ gritty metaphor in the introduction of sultry blondes... I can't do it, so why bother trying?
Science, literature, and common sense tell us that the self is a fickle thing, subject to revision in real time, and that the chasm that exists between any two people exists inside each and every one of us.
We crime novelists have a great pulpit. We write about justice and about correcting injustice.
Trying to catch hold of yourself is a fool's errand. There is no you, only a series of former yous, created in one instant, deleted in the next.
There was a time, after I earned my graduate degree and before I sold my first novel, when it looked like I might have to get an office job.
All writers start out mimicking other writers. I've never relinquished that. I have a good ear for speech and writing patterns.
Being a member of the Nintendo generation, I've got a really short attention span.
I had some trepidation about working with someone else, especially a family member. You don't want work to affect your personal relationship.
The most important lesson my parents taught me is that writing is a job, one that requires discipline and commitment. Most of the time it's a fun job, a wonderful job, but sometimes it isn't, and those are the days that test you.
