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" For me, suspense is always harder and better than going for the quick, outright scare. "

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" Very quickly, I discovered I did not have what it takes to be a good crime reporter: I was too unassertive and a little bit wimpy. It was very clear that was not what I was going to do, but I loved journalism, and I'm the daughter of a film professor, and my mom taught reading. "

" I think everyone self-mythologizes. "

" You don't normally see incredibly ugly people who've gone missing and it becomes a sensation. "

" I think mystery writers and thriller writers - whatever genre you want to call it - are taking on some of the biggest, most interesting kind of socioeconomic issues around in a really interesting, compelling way. "

" I love Joyce Carol Oates. I love Margaret Atwood, T.C. Boyle. Arthur Phillips is always consistent. "

" My first job had me miscast as a bubbly shopgirl; I was pathologically shy and, thus, tended to replace human speech with excessive head gestures. It was like being waited on by Harpo Marx. "

" I watched 'Psycho' a million times. "

" I've never been interested in watching or reading anything because it's the hero's story. I don't feel the need to be inspired by the character or learn a lesson. I feel the need to be engaged by them. "

" Female violence is a specific brand of ferocity. It's invasive. A girlfight is all teeth and hair, spit and nails - a much more fearsome thing to watch than two dudes clobbering each other. "

" There are no really new stories anymore. "

" I tend to write about dark things that happen in a very domestic setting 'cause that, to me, is much scarier than the unknown. "

" I have four or five ideas that just keep floating around and I want to kind of just let one - like a beautiful butterfly, let it land somewhere. "

" My first two novels featured narrators who were aggressively unattached: They couldn't form any sort of genuine relationship. So I had thoroughly explored the geography of loneliness and isolation. "

" The number of mystery and horror writers I've met who are just the sanest and the nicest people... it's crazy. Maybe it's because the writing gets something out of the system? "

" Women are just as violently minded as men are, but with men, it's taken for granted. "

Taken For Granted

" One of my rules about writing exercises is you never are allowed to put them in your book because it's just too tempting. You try to shoehorn things that don't belong. "

" The best crime reporters don't mind charging in - but they also know how to do it as decent human beings. "

" I have two kids, and anyone who has a kid in order to feel loved is going to be in trouble because kids are first and foremost all about themselves. They'll say they love you, but 10 seconds later they'll turn on you. "

" As much as I really like the screenwriting thing, the novel is where the author has so much control. "

" Even good characters have their dark sides, and I think it is important that women aren't seen as innately good. "

" 'Rosemary's Baby' is one of my all-time favorite books. I love that it just ends with, you know, 'Hey, the devil's in the world, and guess what? Mom kind of likes him!' And that's the end. "

" I've wondered if 'Harry Potter' would have been as big if it was 'Harriet Potter.' Now that I've written a screenplay - and raising a son in particular - I'm looking at story content and realizing how limited women are onscreen. "

" I do love 'The Turn of the Screw' - I just think that one's always so disturbing. "

" A really great popcorn movie is extremely hard to pull off. A really great popcorn book is equally hard to pull off, so I don't feel guilty devouring one. "

" It seems like the darker the books are, the nicer the person is. People say it's the romance writers you've got to watch out for. "

" My dad was a film professor, so he would take me to wildly inappropriate movies. "

" I am not someone who has hobbies. I have tried knitting, and I can't figure it out. "

" I was very lucky to grow up in a household that really valued storytelling and didn't find it frivolous. "

" Kansas City is truly an awesome town. "

" I would love to do a full-scale graphic novel. "