Author

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

There's a science to brain development. The brains of teenage boys are crowded with impulse and adrenaline. By the time they hit their 20s, their brains are dominated by conscience and reason.

I'm a fast driver.

I do feel like that's what a writer does, is he goes into other people's heads.

I'm more apt to shed a tear than my wife about family matters.

My sons are black, and my daughter is Latina.

My books are not for everybody.

It's relatively easy to adopt kids if you're not trying to get kids that look exactly like you.

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

I am on my bike daily, and most of the locations, warehouses and specific residences from 'The Cut' were found while I was riding.

Sometimes there's a reason for the hype.

I never took a writing class.

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.

I was heavily into John D. MacDonald.

I never went to a writing school, so 'The Wire' was my writing school.

I never went to school for writing, never took a writing class, but when you're in a room with David Simon and Ed Burns and Dennis Lehane and Richard Price, and they're going over something you've written, you learn what works and what doesn't.

I was a child in the '60s and a teenager in the '70s, which was the golden age of film as far as I'm concerned, between American film and the Italian reinvention of genre film.

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

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.