Tess Gerritsen
I raised two sons, and I know that even though they're bigger and stronger than I am, they're still little boys inside. They still cry, they still hurt. So whenever I write a male character, no matter how 'heroic' he may be, I think of my sons. And I remember that every man was once a little boy.
There is no better test of character than when you're tossed into crisis. That's when we see one's true colors shine through. So I try my best to make my characters personally involved in the plot, in a way that stresses them and tests them.
I'm trained in science, believe in logic, and like to think there's an explanation for everything. And I'm truly not really at ease with other people.
Medicine is probably one of the best backgrounds for a writer to find stories. I always think cops and docs have the best background because we see so much of human behavior, such a range of human emotions.
I think that, for physicians who want to become writers, they have the material, the smarts, they have the logic, they know the stories; it's just a matter of being able to connect with their emotional sides - that's the key to writing good fiction.
The dead do not hurt you; only the living do.Collection: Hurt
Only the forgotten are truly dead.Collection: Forgotten
We dream our dreams, and sometimes they take us to places we never anticipate. But they are our dreams, and we go where they lead.Collection: Dream
The most intimate feeling people can share is neither love nor hate, but pain.Collection: Pain
Where we go depends on what we know, and what we know depends on where we go.Collection: Knows
Death does not discriminate; whether saints or sinners, in the end, all are equal.Collection: Doe
Sometimes, the person who could make you happiest is the one who waits patiently in the wings.Collection: Wings
The most dangerous enemy in the world is the one you do not recognize.Collection: Enemy
The one man you most want to sleep with may be the worst choice of all.Collection: Sleep
I know there’s evil in the world, and there always has been. But you don’t need to believe in Satan or demons to explain it. Human beings are perfectly capable of evil all by themselves.Collection: Believe
That's what falling in love really amounted to, your brain on drugs. Adrenaline and dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. Chemical insanity, celebrated by poets.Collection: Falling In Love
We never know until the beast of opportunity is staring us in the face.Collection: Opportunity
My childhood was spent in my local library in a San Diego suburb. It's where I became a writer - by 1st becoming a reader!Collection: Childhood
The heart makes its choices without weighing the consequences. It doesn't look ahead to the lonely nights that follow.Collection: Lonely
We are not as impervious as we think we are. - Dr Maura IslesCollection: Thinking
Everything's a gamble, love most of all.Collection: Gamble
No man easily admits that he is afraid.Collection: Men
Ha! Kids! You have no idea what you put your parents through, either. Wait till you have your own, you'll see. That's when you'll know what it really feels like." .. "What what feels like?"..."Love," said Angela.Collection: Kids
God, it's like reality's completely shifted on me. I used to think I was standing on such solid ground. If I wanted something badly enough, I just worked like hell for it. Now I can't decide what to do, which move to make. All the things I counted on aren't there for me anymore.Collection: Moving
The best heroes in the world are the reluctant ones. Courage isn't fearlessness - it's acting in the face of fear.Collection: Courage
We are all descended from monsters.Collection: Monsters
When you're a fifty-year-old woman, no one really bothers to look at you anymore, much less value your opinion. It's hard on the old ego. But damn, it does make it easy to get away with a lot.Collection: Years
I devote most of my day to writing, and try to turn out at least four pages a day. As for what triggers the creative process, it's a mystery to me! Characters often just walk on the page and I wait to see what they do and say while I'm writing them.Collection: Writing
I was a writer first, and knew I'd be a storyteller at age seven. But since my parents are very practical, they urged me to go into a profession that would be far more secure so I went to medical school. But after practicing medicine for a few years, while raising two sons (with a husband who was also a doctor) I realized that combining medicine with motherhood was more of a challenge than I could handle. So I left medicine and stayed home. And that's when I once again picked up the pen and began to write.Collection: Husband
If I were stranded on a desert island, the one book I would have with me would is the Bible. There are enough stories in the Bible to keep you engaged for years.Collection: Book
If you want to remain at liberty, I suggest you not antagonize your defenders.Collection: Liberty
... he knew that the cruelest of blows too often came with a smile.Collection: Blow
What Rizzoli thought, staring at her own image, was that she hated Elizabeth Hurley for giving women false hope. The brutal truth was, there are some women who will never be beautiful, and Rizzoli was one of them.Collection: Beautiful
With every year that I grow older, I also draw closer to (my loved ones) to the day when we will once again be together. So I march through the deepening shadows, serene and unafraid, because I know that at the end of my journey they will be waiting for me.Collection: Journey
She was the only woman in the homicide unit, and already there had been problems between her and another detective, charges of sexual harassment, countercharges of unrelenting bitchiness.Collection: Detectives
She now knew her death was inevitable, and with that acceptance came liberation. The courage of the condemned.Collection: Acceptance
There is honor between bitchesCollection: Honor
Sometimes, the stars line up, the gods smile, and love gets a fighting chance. Just a chance. That's all it can really hope for. No guarantees, no certaintiesCollection: Stars
Parenthood is nothing but doubts.Collection: Doubt
Even divorce, she thought, cannot erase all the bonds forged by years of marriage. Long after the papers are signed, decrees notarized, the ties still remain. And the most powerful tie of all is written in a child's flesh and blood.Collection: Children
The Christmas tree, twinkling with lights, had a mountain of gifts piled up beneath it, like offerings to the great god of excess.Collection: Christmas
Motherhood didn't make you stronger; it made you vulnerable and afraid of what death could steal from you.Collection: Motherhood
Evil doesn't die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we've been touched by it once, it doesn't mean we're immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice.Collection: Hurt