Quotes from Robert Crais

I think every writer of detective fiction writing today has been influenced by Mr. Parker. I'm of a generation that followed Robert Parker, and it was impossible to read the genre and not be influenced by him.

My first job was cleaning dog kennels. It was especially, ah, aromatic during those hot, humid Louisiana summers, but it prepared me for Hollywood.

I have these huge black foam boards on the wall, and tacked to them, I have these white punch cards with my story ideas, scenes and notes.

If my vision was good enough, I'd be an astronaut.

No other animal bonds to a human being the way a dog does. And I suspect there is no other animal to which human beings can bond the way we can bond to a dog.

What they smell isn't the emotion of fear. What dogs can smell is the changes in a person's skin that suggest fear to the dog, anxiety, the way your skin sweats, the amount of uric acid that suddenly pours out of your pores.

I have this horrible weakness. I fall in love with my characters. 'Suspect' started as a one-shot, but I just love Maggie so much, and I love Maggie and Scott and what they have going.

My family was all police and hard hats at the refineries; they didn't know what to think about me. So I became a closet writer.

the birds scratch the seed out of the feeder, then fly down to the deck to eat the seed. They know there's a cat, but still they go down to pick at the seed. When you think about it, people are often like this, too.

Muthuhfuckin' muthuhfucker! I oughta come over there kick your ass myself, worryin'me like this? I got your back homes! I got your back!

That's the way adults often talk to children. You know they're not going to listen, but you want to tell them anyway just so you know that you have.

People often die from love, and this is a secret we all keep, even from ourselves.

Patrol dogs and Military Working Dogs were trained to protect their handlers. If the handler was attacked, and unconscious, or fighting for his or her life, the dog had to know what to do without being told. As Leland said, "These animals aren't robots, goddamnit! They think! You train her up right, this beautiful dog will watch your back better than a squad of goddamned Marines!

She fingered the card and looked at the younger man. "James Edward, did you offer the man a cool drink?" James Edward said, "You want a Scrapple?

and you would never know they were gone, but losing a child left an emptiness so large it screamed to be filled with memories.

LARKIN WATCHED Pike leaving, and in the moment he stepped outside, he was framed in the open door of their Echo Park house like a picture in a magazine, frozen in time and space. A big man, but not a giant. More average in size than not. With the sleeves covering his arms, and his face turned away, he seemed heartbreakingly normal, which made her love him even more. A superman risked nothing, but an average man risked everything.

Pete was relaxed around them, so Maggie tolerated them, but only when Pete was near.

So when it comes to Elvis and Joe, I have to trust my instincts, because they've gotten me here. And I have to write what I believe in, what I find moving.

I'm a big brown mouse, I go marching through the house, and I'm not afraid of anything! I

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

There isn't so much love in the world that you can turn it away when it's offered.

I looked like an ad for Banana Republic. Maybe Banana Republic would give me a job. They could put my picture in their little catalog and under it they could say: Elvis Cole, famous detective, outfitted for his latest adventure in rugged inner-city climes!

Kerri turned each page slowly, lifting the next page and scanning the pictures

Waiting doesn't look like much, but it is something very important. Waiting is passive hunting.