“Read widely and with discrimination. Bad writing is contagious."[Ten rules for writing fiction, The Guardian, 20 February 2010 (with Diana Athill, Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Helen Dunmore, Geoff Dyer, Anne Enright, Richard Ford, Jonathan Franzen, Esther Freud, Neil Gaiman, David Hare, and AL Kennedy)]”

“Crime fiction "confirms our belief, despite some evidence to the contrary, that we live in a rational, comprehensible, and moral universe.”

“Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in ... the edit."[Ten rules for writing fiction (part two), The Guardian, 20 February 2010]”

“I don't see why escapist literature shouldn't also be a work of art.”

“What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.”

“It is always easy to question the judgement of others in matters of which we may be imperfectly informed.”

“Violent death erase[s] more than the semblance of life.”