“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”

“I am a politician which means I am a liar and a crook. When I am not kissing babies I am stealing their lollypops.”

“Danger confronted properly is not something a man must fear.”

“if you don't write it down, then it never happened”

“If you don't write it down, it never happened.Cathy (& Jack) Ryan”

“Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a questi...”

“Don't panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick successio...”

“It wasn't an epidemic yet because no one knew about it.”

“Safety is largely an illusion, and panic knows this.”

“The sins of women and children, domestic servants and the weak, the poor and the ignorant, are the sins of the husbands and fathers, the masters, the strong and the rich and the educated.”

“I have always derived indescribable pleasure from leading a decent woman to the edge of sin and leaving her there to live between the temptation and the fear of that sin.”

“Told often enough that they are the source of sin, women may well begin feeling guilty as they accept the necessity for penance. Taught effectively enough that they are irrelevant to the important ...”