"When I was eight or nine, there was a very scary case of a guy who murdered four children in my community. I had no conscious memory of it, but now I'm sure that we all must have felt for these kids. We must have felt it, but no one was saying anything. I wonder now how much that impacted on me without my knowing it. The past is never really past."

"I think it was Freud who said that we're all arrested at a certain age. For me, it was always 13."

"I don't really consider any of my novels 'crime' novels."

"I think there are two prevailing views of the suburbs in the States: either they're this sort of tedious place, where everyone is the same, buys the same food and drives around in their little minivans, or the view is that the suburbs are extremely perverse in a humorous way."

"The problem is the myths of Area 51 are hard to dispute if no one can speak on the record about what actually happened there."

"Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition."

"The effort to blur the lines between Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib reflects a deep misunderstanding about the different legal regimes that apply to Iraq and the war against al Qaeda."

"I call my therapist every other day. It's not a one-stop shop. You have to push away all that negativity in your head. Face it, name it, let it go."