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I guess I've always been attracted to secret societies and the mystery surrounding them.

I just have mysteries in all my books, I think, whether it's a boy investigating or a girl. I have an enduring fascination with mysteries of all kinds.

I like to write in a shroud of secrecy because I have to keep finding ways to scare myself.

I like a challenge. The fact that these are secret organizations, and also very important organizations that can engage in abuses that are so important to our national security - all that attracts me.

I'm famously secretive about my work. Nobody reads my books till they're finished.

I've always been really interested in secrets - how people find ways of doing things without telling anyone else in order to keep themselves feeling safe in the world.

I do tend to be an analyzer. I'm an old English major from way back, so I do have fun tearing apart texts and trying to find the hidden secrets and the subtexts in there.

I've always been interested in family secrets and what happens behind closed doors. I find that fascinating and creepy - that's why I read: because I want to know other people's secrets.

The thing is that quite a few of my books have ended up as they are because of conversations I've had over the years with forensic scientists.

I'm sort of fascinated by the whole espionage crime thing.