Karin Slaughter
People just make stupid mistakes. And they keep making them and keep making them, and suddenly they can't dig themselves out.Collection: Mistake
If you're a smart guy, you should really try to find out what women are thinking. I mean, we are 51 percent of the population.Collection: Smart
[On men:] ... you never know what they're like until you get them home and take them out of their packages.Collection: Home
A lot of novels use crime as a stepping stone to talk about greater issues. So I just think of myself as a writer.Collection: Thinking
Even Gone With the Wind had a shocking, cold-blooded murder.Collection: Wind
I'm afraid of the general things that everyone is afraid of: a bump in the night that could be a cat or Death dragging his sickle across the room; losing my health; becoming homeless, never meeting George Clooney.Collection: Cat
Usually, guys, when something bad happens, they punish someone else.Collection: Guy
sexual predators were like cockroaches. For every one you saw, there were twenty more hiding behind the walls.Collection: Wall
You didn't realize what was passing you by until you slowed down a little bit to get a better look.Collection: Looks
The plot is very important because writers have to play fair with their readers, but no one would care about the plot if the character work wasn't there. So, basically every book I work on starts with me thinking not just about the bad thing that's going to happen, but how that bad thing is going to ripple through the community, the family of the victim, and the lives of the investigators. I am keenly aware when I'm working that the crimes I am writing about have happened to real people. I take that very seriously.Collection: Real
Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.Collection: Stupidity
I was with a real jerk after the first heartbreak, and once I did the prerequisite eating an entire cake and singing "All By Myself" in the shower, I realized that people treat you badly when you let them, and that I had to respect myself and not let anyone else treat me that way again. If someone really loves you, they are your biggest champion, not your biggest detractor.Collection: Real
A lot of men just don't read. They don't read fiction at all.Collection: Men
I am a voracious reader myself. I don't stick to one genre. My only criteria is that it's a good story. I try to bring that to my work because I think people can read your excitement about a story.Collection: Thinking
First and foremost, I want people to have a good read, because I want everything I write to entertain people. There are always different layers to the story, though, so if you want to think about social justice, or sexism or racism or homophobia, or really drill down into why the world is a better place when the police force looks like the people they are policing, then that's there, too.Collection: Writing
I am a bit of a Dudley Do-Gooder, though, because if I see a car accident or something bad happen, I am one of those idiots who runs toward the problem instead of away from it. Not that I would recommend this behavior.Collection: Running
I went to a Christian School, and when I reached a certain age, I wasn't allowed to wear pants to school anymore. There was a big conference about it with my parents about how unladylike it was for me to wear pants ,this was a school where the principal and once of the coaches stood at the front door with a wooden ruler to make sure girls' skirts were an inch below their knee. So, from that day forward, I had to wear skirts, which meant that I couldn't play on the playground like I used to. I really feel like I could've been the next Serena Williams if not for that.Collection: Christian
I grew up reading crime fiction and, especially in the '80s, women were just there to be saved or screwed.Collection: Reading
Ultimately, I'm in control of what's going on in the books, so I can back off, if it's scaring me too much.Collection: Book
I think that people do things for a reason - that we have mental illness, that we have genetic wiring that can get triggered by certain environmental factors.Collection: Thinking
I'm sold as a literary writer in Holland; I'm sold as crime fiction in England. I think of it as just literature.Collection: Thinking
When a woman creates an unlikable character, a lot of people think it's a mistake.Collection: Mistake
I'm not somebody who believes in evil.Collection: Believe
You can only make decisions with the information you have at the timeCollection: Decision
Meg Gardiner is one of my favorite authors. She always delivers a terrific read. Phantom Instinct should go to the top of your 'to-be-read' pile.Collection: Meg
Alafair Burke understands the criminal mind. Long Gone is both an education and an entertainment of the first order. This is a very clever and very smart novel by a very clever and smart writer. The dialogue crackles, the plot is intriguing, and the pacing is perfect.Collection: Clever
I can’t—” Lena repeated. “I can’t do it. I can’t live without him.” Sara gently pulled her hand away from Jared’s. She smoothed down the sheet, tucked it in close around his side. She looked at Lena—really looked at her straight in the eye. “Good,” Sara told her. “Now you know how it feels.Collection: Eye
Long Gone is the type of book that should come with a warning. It’s a compulsively readable, highly addictive story. The ending will leave you breathless.Collection: Book
Like every Southern writer, I thought that I needed to write the next Gone With the Wind.Collection: Writing
Talking of the local Sheriff, Jake Valentine, tall and skinny and his wife Myra, "She was a short woman, maybe five feet tall in her socks, the top of her head not quite reaching Jake's chest. What she lacked in height she made up for in girth. Jeffrey guessed she was at least a hundred pounds overweight. Standing side by side, the Valentines looked like the living embodiment of the number ten.Collection: Valentine