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Writing a mystery is more difficult than other kinds of books because a mystery has a certain framework that must be superimposed over the story.

My stories are often a little mysterious.

Short stories are fiction's R & D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for.

I know it may sound silly, but I think my short stories have a life and identity of their own. They crop up in all sorts of places.

It seems to me that good novels celebrate the mystery in ordinary life, and summing it all up in psychological terms strips the mystery away.

With short stories, you can always see the whole, but it's just so hard to get everything you want into that small form.

I do think that short story writing is often a matter of luck.

Writing a mystery is like drawing a picture and then cutting it into little pieces that you offer to your readers one piece at a time, thus allowing them the chance to put the jigsaw puzzle together by the end of the book.

Mysteries I read for fun, so I will probably never write one, for fear of spoiling the fun.

You find most of the interesting stories are the ones that are slightly harder to get made.