Books may look like nothing more than words on a page, but they are actually an infinitely complex imaginotransference technology that translates odd, inky squiggles into pictures inside your head.

Take no heed of her.... She reads a lot of books.

Governments and fashions come and go but Jane Eyre is for all time.

Literary detection and firearms don't really go hand in hand; pen mighter than the sword and so forth.

Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge of mankind. And story, you mark my words, will be with the last human to draw breath.

There is a certain degree of 'steampunkishness' that creeps into my books.