I think we can do it.””But you don’t know for sure,” he said.”No.””Geez, Anita.””Don’t get rattled on me. We can do this.””But you aren’t sure.””I’m not sure we’ll survive the plane ride home, but I’m...

Like most creative people I don’t fit well into boxes.

My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends – I can give them advice, but they don’t have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like...

Accidental sex. He made it sound like I fell down, and there just happened to be an erection in the way.

I sat on the bed. Neither of us said anything. I wasn’t slick and sophisticated enough for this. What do you say to boyfriend A when he finds you naked in the bed of boyfriend...

Nothing is more appealing than a handsome man who is also uncertain of himself.

We aren’t the good guys, Anita. We’re the necessary guys. -Edward

You give the reader a sense of a full meal.

That was the true terror of love, that you could love with your whole heart, your whole soul, and lose both

The heart wants what it wants, Dolp. You don’t plan on making your life complicated, it just happens,and you don”t do it on purpose, and you don’t do it to hurt people who love you....

I try to be a good cop. I try to be a good little soldier and follow orders up to a point. But in the end I’m not really a cop, or a soldier. I...

The rich and powerful always seem to prefer the tops of buildings. Hasn’t anyone ever explained to them that higher just means you have farther to fall? — Anita Blake

She’d been a good nurse, and now she’d never be a nurse again. She was bitter about it and had turned herself into the slut bride from Planet X, as if even in human form,...

Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than you do.

Stupidity isn’t punishable by death. If it was, there would be a hell of a population drop.

I looked at Micah, who shrugged. I looked at Rafael, who shook his head. Nice that none of us knew why he was undressing.

Men don’t settle down because of the right woman. They settle down because they are finally ready for it. Whatever woman they’re dating when they get ready is the one they settle down with, not...

Sticks and stones will break your bones, but failure will get you killed.

Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn’t going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds...

For me the Anita series is built like a mystery series, which means that as much as possible each book stands alone, so you have a mystery to solve from the beginning to the end...

You can’t save everybody. In fact, there are days when I think you can’t save anyone. Each person has to save himself first, then you can move in and help. I have found this philosophy...

There had to be a circle of Hell where you were eternally fourteen, eternally in junior high. One of the lower circles.

Out last chance is a cat’s magic sight. We are doomed.

Edward leaned close and whispered in my ear so that Olaf would think he was whispering sweet nothings, but what he what he actually said, was, “We aren’t the good guys, Anita. We’re the necessary...

Readers respond to every genre intensely, if it’s a genre that appeals to them. Again, who can say why anyone enjoys horror and dark fantasy? If I can’t answer the question for myself, I wouldn’t...

People talk of sorrow as if it is soft, a thing of water and tears. But true sorrow is not soft. True sorrow is a thing of fire, and rock. It burns your heart, crushes...

No name-calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it is just noise.

Edward smiled, I smiled, even Bernardo smiled. Olaf just looked sinister.

I spend most of my waking hours confronting and destroying things that I fear. A thousand-year-old master vampire was a tall order, but a girl’s got to have a goal.

If you don’t feel loved maybe the outward trappings like weddings and wedding rings become important? (Page 567)

What we prefer to read is sort of like sexual preference, you like what you like. Most of the time you have no clue why.

If you didn’t understand the need for friendship or love, could you be lonely?

You can not die of grief, though it feels as if you can. A heart does not actually break, though sometimes your chest aches as if it is breaking. Grief dims with time. It is...

Sex is like crying, it does look pretty if you really do it

You look wonderful”, Jason said.”No compliments, Jason. I’m uncomfortable enough in the lingerie.””Then by all means take it off.

Everyone spends their lives trying to balance their world between good and evil.

I started off like everyone else does, slogging but having a compulsion to put words on paper. I didn’t write or read horror or fantasy, other than children’s fantasy, until I was in my teens.

Still it might be nice, once in a while, not to have to choose between evils. Just once, couldn’t I choose the lesser good?

I just don’t believe in helping people who are going to torture me. Though I don’t see any bamboo slivers. How can you possibly torture someone without bamboo slivers?

who me?”anita blake seriesby: Laurell K Hamilton

I shook my head. “I’m good, Nicky helped.”Nicky looked at Edward. “She’s having one of those what-if-killing-feels-really-good, doesn’t-that-make-me-a-bad-person moments.” Edward nodded as if that made perfect sense. “Then it feels good. We can’t really control...

I cannot say how strongly I object to people using other people’s writing as research. Research is non-fiction, especially for horror, fantasy, science fiction. Do not take your research from other people’s fiction. Just don’t.

Lust has less logic than love, sometimes, but it’s easier to fight.

The truth may not set you free, but used carefully, it can confuse the hell out of your enemies.

Grimes believed in what he did, with no doubts. Though he was older than me by over a decade, I suddenly felt old. Some things mark your soul, not in years but in blood and...

He squeezed my shoulder and smiled at me.I realized that I hadn’t kissed him hello, I always kissed him hello. Of course, I was still covered in blood and other bodily fluids, and none of...

Watching St John rock his wife’s body was not part of my job description. Honest. I sat down on the stairs where I could see the door, the hallway, and the stairs as far as...

I went to Marion College for writing and I was kicked out of the writing school. I was asked to leave the writing program because I was corrupting the other students.

He held Saraid the rest of the way home, and in a way she held him right back, because sometimes and especially for a man, being able to be someone’s big strong shoulder to cry...

Death, especially violent death, will turn the meanest bastard in the world into a nice guy. Why is that?