Quotes from Martin Cruz Smith

As a novelist, I tell stories and people give me money. Then financial planners tell me stories and I give them money.

Of course the biggest mafia in Russia has always been the government; in Soviet times, the Communist Party, and now a circle of former KGB and FSB.

The great thing about being a writer is that you are always recreating yourself.

Happiness is the maximum agreement of reality and desire.

Because normal human activity is worse for nature than the greatest nuclear accident in history.

I've got a book of poetry by the bed, one of these big collections that goes back to the Greeks and Romans.

To capture the human cost of fallen empire with all its horror and absurdity, Sheets offers the right combination: the political insight of a top reporter and the power of a novelist.

'High Concept' means a book or a film whose core idea can be stated in a single sentence, such as 'Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are twins.' Or, 'Arnold is pregnant.'

Most people - and particularly people whose lives have nothing to do with books at all - are intrigued by the idea that somebody wants to listen to them and get it right.

Julian Assange is certainly no hero. The man behind WikiLeaks issued threats as if he were Dr. No bent on ending civilization as we know it. We will find him, lock him up, and throw away the key. But give the man credit; for a week the truth was laid bare.

I have another Russian idea, too, with a place and a period, so I guess I have enough to keep me busy for quite some time, especially considering that I'm such a slow writer.

I hate the Army," Eberly said. "The Army wants you to hate it," Joe said. "It's the Army system. It's what bonds us all together into a fighting unit.

All nights should be so dark, all winters so warm, all headlights so dazzling. The

A nurse the size of a shipping hazard peered over him and smiled. Some of her teeth were missing, some were gold, and the sight was so unnerving that Arkady hoped he wouldn't give her cause to smile again.

it swallows gas like a drunk, but a man who lets guilt ruin pleasure is the pincushion of fate.

Where the bee sucks, there suck I. There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat's back I do fly."

One out of every five mammals on the face of the earth is a bat.

It was Stalin's Great Terror updated for modern times, with disinformation, legal machinations, indiscriminate violence. Bloodshed was a way of proving loyalty. One was either with or against. And the penalties for resistance were changing all the time, from imprisonment to death, ordered or merely allowed to happen. It amounted to the same thing.

That's why I tell the children not to chew gum. First it's gum, then rock music, then marijuana and . . .

ennui. Nevertheless, when he heard the screech of gulls he

he never knows what he's saying. He says everything, so he has to be right some of the time.

Twiss. Free of vice and gossip and idle tales." As the indicator arrow hit "B," Joseph switched to

Roman shook his head as if he'd given the matter a lot of consideration. "Wolves hate dogs. Wolves hunt down dogs because they regard them as traitors. If you think about it, dogs are dogs only because of humans; otherwise they'd all be wolves, right? And where will we be when all the dogs are gone? It will be the end of civilization.

There are no grand plans, no master strategies, just the lust for power, the insane addictive desire to accumulate more and more because too much is never enough.