It Took Me Nine Months To Write

This Was A Very Progressive Group Of Clergy Who Foresaw The Race Riots That Were Going To Take Place When Dr. King Started Helping The Local Civil Rights Community Push For Open Housing. They Were Sort Of Hoping Against Hope That We Could Educate Kids In A Way That Could Counter Some Of The Racist Messages They Were Imbibing At Home. I Don't Know Whether We Did Any Good, But It Changed My Life In Every Single Way.

I Think Peter Dickinson Is Hands Down The Best Stylist As A Writer And The Most Interesting Storyteller In My Genre.

I Began Wanting To Create A Detective Who Really Turned The Tables On That Image Of Women, To Know That You Could Have A Sex Life And Not Be A Bad Person. You Could Have A Sex Life And Still Solve Your Own Problems. It Was Eight Years From When I Started Having The Fantasy That I Was Going To Create Such A Detective To When I Actually Sat Down And Came Up With V. I. Warshawski. It Was A Long, Slow Journey To Come To A Writing Voice And Do That Character.

I Had A Fantasy As A Child That I Might Be A Writer Someday. I Always Thought That Meant You Went To New York Or Paris. But After That Intense Summer, I Never Thought That I Wanted To Live Any Place But Chicago. It Also Made Me See What The Stakes Were In The Civil Rights Movement. And It Made Me See What Real Hatred Was Like And The Forms That It Took. But It Also Made Me Understand How Powerless Ordinary People Feel In Their Lives.

Never Underestimate A Man's Ability To Underestimate A Woman.