“I think if we wish to live in any kind of a moral universe, we must hold the perpetrators of violence responsible for the violence they perpetrate. It’s very simple. The criminal is responsible for the crime.”

Ignorantly is how we all fall in love; for it is a kind of fall. Closing our eyes, we leap from that cliff in hope of a soft landing. Nor is it always soft; but still, without that leap nobody comes to life.

He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.

You can find shame in every house, burning in an ashtray, hanging framed upon a wall, covering a bed. But nobody notices it any more.

To understand just one life you have to swallow the world do you wonder, then, that I was a heavy child?

Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.

The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.

It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions.

Once you put a thought into the world, it can be disagreed with, but it can’t be unthought.

We all owe death a life.

What I do think is evident is that those countries in the world where Islamic extremism has recovered the most power, those are also the countries which are most disliked.

Religion is responsible for a lot of the problems in the history of the world and it’s not something that I practice or recommend, but to each his own.

But there’s one thing we must all be clear about: terrorism is not the pursuit of legitimate goals by some sort of illegitimate means. Whatever the murderers may be trying to achieve, creating a better world certainly isn’t one of their goals. Instead they are out to murder innocent people.

My horizon’s have shrunk and I have only endings to write.

Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.

Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.

I didn’t become a writer to write about me.

Getting smart on crime’ does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.

Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.

It is a crime not to try to move ahead with fear, leaving your dreams in the middle. Your fear makes you commit this crime.

I am fascinated by crime scene investigating. I swear, I wish I was a crime scene investigator sometimes!

Low aim, not failure, is the crime.

Two criminals were crucified with Christ. One was saved; do not despair. One was not; do not presume.

Well for one, the 13th amendment to the constitution of the US which abolished slavery – did not abolish slavery for those convicted of a crime.

The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.