The third person narrator, instead of being omniscient, is like a constantly running surveillance tape.

Stealing to eat ain’t criminal—stealing to be rich is.

No politician is threatened by the child protective constituency, because it does not exist.

I don’t understand people whose gratification is a BMW. You don’t know what joy is until you see a kid who was tortured get adopted by a family.

Anyone who says, ‘Books don’t change anything,’ or – more commonly – that crime fiction is the wrong genre for promoting social change – should take a closer look.

If a train is coming at you, closing your eyes won’t save you … but if you look right at it, you at least have a chance to jump.

Ask any experienced defense lawyer: the real risks are for an accused person who is innocent. A guilty defendant has many more options available.

Most investigators don’t even know what the word means. You stop the cops from using informants and the only crimes they’d ever solve would be those by deranged postal workers who come to work once...

A trial is not a search for truth. It is a contest and, often, one that produces no winners.

We don’t protect our young, and we tolerate predators of our own species.

I don’t even use italics or boldface; that’s clutter, not clarity. Fancy fonts are fine for blogs, just as calligraphy is fine for diaries. But when you’re writing for anyone other than yourself, you want...

Camouflage doesn’t help when the other guy is willing to defoliate the whole jungle.

Courier 12 is the Type-O blood of fonts – works just as good for a ‘N.Y. Times’ op-ed as a screenplay or a short story.