When I set out to research the story of the Culper Spy Ring, I had no idea where it would take me.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think I would have been a hopeless spy. I love telling stories and am almost entirely unable to keep a secret.
I'm a great believer in research. I have to know about a place before I write a story that is set in that place.
I always liked spy stories.
It's a thrilling world, and people really like stories about secrets, which is the essence of a spy drama.
I could have been a top notch spy. People confess the most amazing secrets to me, even when I am not fishing for those nuggets. I must look trustworthy because I sit there with a video camera or a tape recorder while the stories pour out.
I wasn't a spy. I'd have been spotted in five seconds. Yes, I was in intelligence, but that covered a multitude of things.
For a spy novelist like me, the Edward J. Snowden story has everything. A man driven by ego and idealism - can anyone ever distinguish the two? - leaves his job and his beautiful girlfriend behind. He must tell the world the Panopticon has arrived. His masters vow to punish him, and he heads for Moscow in a desperate search for refuge.
I began writing fiction because it was the only way to tell all the intricacies of a real-life spy story.
I've always loved spy stories. Who can resist?
I invented the historical spy novel.