Good science fiction has its roots in good science.

I write seven days a week, starting at 4 o'clock in the morning, including Christmas.

I write slowly. I actually write quickly, but I throw out so much material.

I still get up every morning at 4 A.M. I write seven days a week, including Christmas. And I still face a blank page every morning, and my characters don't really care how many books I've sold.

I will not write a lame follow-up. It could take me 20 years. But I will never turn in a book that I'm not happy with.

Writing an informative yet compact thriller is a lot like making maple sugar candy. You have to tap hundreds of trees - boil vats and vats of raw sap - evaporate the water - and keep boiling until you've distilled a tiny nugget that encapsulates the essence.

I don't know where I would place myself in the literary landscape. I really just write the book that I would want to read. And I put on the blinders, and I really - it is, for me, that simple.