Such a simple concept, yet so true: that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.

In its rather clinical view of death, 'True Grit' rivals the hardboiled world of 'Red Harvest'-era Dashiell Hammett and prefigures Cormac McCarthy by 20 years.

I get chills when I think that there's a statue of Phil Lynott on a street in Dublin, that people leave flowers by the statue. I love stuff like that.

I'm a very sentimental, emotional person.

I was really rudderless at one point my life. And once I started reading books, then I got the idea that maybe I could become a writer. I had a goal. And every day when I got up, there was a reason.

I'm proudly a crime writer, but it would be really inaccurate to call me a mystery writer.

I'm forever grateful to have had the opportunity to prove myself to my dad. After I took over the diner, the look in my father's eyes went from disappointment to respect.

After college, I spent a decade working the kinds of jobs that I write about - bartender, shoe salesman, kitchen man - while voraciously reading novels.

I shoot occasionally, but I'm no gun expert.

I like writing about people who spend their time trying to help others for the greater good. That's what Americans are supposed to be about, right?

Sometimes I think 'The Wire' said it all, and I might as well not write any more crime novels.

I was 15 years old in 1972, and yeah, when the 1970s broke, I was out there. Everything was kinda swirling around me - the music, women, cars, the culture.

My father's diner, the Jefferson Coffee Shop, was a simple, 27-seat affair in Washington D.C., open for breakfast and lunch - coffee and eggs in the morning, cold cuts and burgers in the afternoon.

I'm a strong believer in second chances.

'The Big Sky' is an American classic.

I make a good spaghetti sauce and can mix a nice drink.

My dad used to call me 'the dreamer.' He was right.

I used to sit in my pickup truck at 7 o'clock in the morning outside my office and listen to the Replacements or something full blast, thinking, 'What am I doing here?'

'Random Rules' kicks off 'American Water,' and from its opening line - 'In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection' - you know you're in for something strange and special.

Sometimes there's a reason for the hype.

Richmond Fontaine bandleader Willy Vlautin writes songs akin to finely composed short stories set in the diners, bars, casinos, and old hotels of Reno and its environs.

I like fiction set in the South, and I'm a fan of literary westerns.

Can't get my head around sci-fi or fantasy. I'm not putting those genres down; it's just that I'm not built for them.

I collect and read as many books about music and film as I do fiction.

I read 'The Washington Post' every day from a very young age. Reading the newspaper taught me how to organize my thoughts on the page. Meaning, it taught me how to write.

If I had my druthers, I wouldn't have anyone's words in my script but my own, but if you want complete autonomy, just stick to novels.

I want to be read. When you write a TV show like 'The Wire,' you've got three to four million readers watching your work. Even Grisham doesn't sell that many books.

At 11 years old, in 1968, my job was to deliver food on foot, so I spent my day walking around the city. I had an active imagination, jacked up by movies. I passed the time making up stories and serializing them.

My senior year at College Park, University of Maryland, I took an elective class in crime fiction taught by Charles C. Mish. He turned me on in a big way to reading and books. I was lucky to have a teacher who changed the course of my life.

'The Turnaround' isn't even really a crime novel. But you need conflict to make a novel, any kind of novel, and I don't know any other way to do it than crime.

There are a lot of bars and shoe stores in my early books.

The cliche is that Washington is a transient town of people who blow in and out every four years with the new administrations. But the reality is that people have lived in Washington for generations, and their lives are worth examining, I think.

I do miss the Chocolate City of my youth.

I really feel like people who want to change things need to go out and change it themselves and not look to politicians to do that.

My goal is to get a real film industry started in Washington. An actual one, not where features come to town and shoot second unit for a few days. I would love to get something started here. Hire local crews. People could work year-round and raise their families here.

A lot of guys are walking around with a lot simmering beneath the surface, and sometimes it explodes.

My books are not for everybody.

I was heavily into John D. MacDonald.

I never took a writing class.

I can't relax. I don't have any hobbies.

I owned a '70 Camaro for many years, which I loved.

There is nothing like the rumble of a dual-piped American car with something under the hood.

For many years, I did ride-alongs with patrol cops, which is any citizen's right.

There's nothing funny about violence. Death is a real thing.

I didn't want to write the same book over and over.

I even dream about writing. I'm talking seeing words across the page, whole paragraphs.

It would probably surprise people how prevalent reading is in institutions - and the degree to which some states discourage reading by instituting draconian rules and laws that try to limit and outright roadblock books in prisons.

I don't judge anyone of any stripe by what they read. Reading is always good for you. It's a positive act.

Incarcerated individuals want what most people want in a novel: good, honest writing and a story well told.

There's a room in my house where my stereo, records, CDs, and books are housed. I spend a lot of time in that room, sitting in my chair beside the fireplace, reading and listening to music. Sometimes I just stand before the shelves and look at my books, because every single one of them means something to me.