One of the surprising things I hadn't expected when I decided to write crime fiction is how much you are expected to be out in front of the public. Some writers aren't comfortable with that. I don't have a problem with that.

I've been accused of being a minimalist writer. I don't like a lot of verbiage in there.

People love to hate the gravedigger.

Bones tell me the story of a person's life - how old they were, what their gender was, their ancestral background.

It's similar to basketball: when you go to different gyms and win or lose, you learn something new. So when kids get out of the classroom, go to a new environment and meet different people, it opens their eyes to new things, and they have fun learning.

The key thing is, even if you only have a couple of hours a month, those two hours shoulder-to-shoulder, next to one student, concentrated attention, shining this beam of light on their work, on their thoughts and their self-expression, is going to be absolutely transformative, because so many of the students have not had that ever before.

I loved teaching English and giving my students confidence.

Some of my educated Filipino friends were aspiring poets, but their aspirations were all in the direction of the United States. They had no desire to learn from the bardic tradition that continued in the barrios. Their ideal would have been to write something that would get them to Iowa, where they would study creative writing.