Quotes from Tess Gerritsen

What Rizzoli thought, staring at her own image, was that she hated Elizabeth Hurley for giving women false hope. The brutal truth was, there are some women who will never be beautiful, and Rizzoli was one of them.

We never know until the beast of opportunity is staring us in the face.

No matter how much you try to maintain order in your life, no matter how careful you are to guard against mistakes, against imperfections, there is always some smudge, some flaw, lurking out of sight. Waiting to surprise you.

No man easily admits that he is afraid.

Some people make choices hoping for the best; Korsak had made a choice simply to avoid the worst.

There's that unpredictability factor, that chance that something completely unexpected - something amazing - could happen. That's what makes life an adventure. Sometimes you just have to jump in and trust the universe.

We are not as impervious as we think we are. - Dr Maura Isles

She was the only woman in the homicide unit, and already there had been problems between her and another detective, charges of sexual harassment, countercharges of unrelenting bitchiness.

The best ideas are those that really affect me emotionally - those are the ones you never forget. You think to yourself, 'I want to write that book', for years; those are the ideas that I love to work with, and 'The Bone Garden' was one of them.

I was a writer first, and knew I'd be a storyteller at age seven. But since my parents are very practical, they urged me to go into a profession that would be far more secure, so I went to medical school.

I spent my childhood watching every scary movie that Hollywood ever made. And I think that gave me the best education for storytelling. It also made me want to reproduce the scary moments that I felt, sitting in a theater at the age of 5.

I raised two sons, and I know that even though they're bigger and stronger than I am, they're still little boys inside. They still cry, they still hurt. So whenever I write a male character, no matter how 'heroic' he may be, I think of my sons. And I remember that every man was once a little boy.

My most successful books, the ones that I feel the strongest about, are the ones that started with a premise that for me was deeply emotional.

My father said writing was a nice hobby. He strongly encouraged my brother and me to become doctors.

The hardest part of writing is the first draft, and the closer you get to your deadline, the messier your workspace becomes - but that's the same with any creative outlet.

My brother often complains to me about the 'angry Asian male' in the United States. As a female, I haven't encountered this, but Asian-American men are angry. They're angry because, for so many years, they've been neglected as sex symbols. Asian women have it much easier, I think; we're accepted into various circles.

Death does not discriminate; whether saints or sinners, in the end, all are equal.

Aside from the Rizzoli & Isles books, there are many other stories I want to write. The question is whether I'll live long enough to write them all!

She now knew her death was inevitable, and with that acceptance came liberation. The courage of the condemned.

We dream our dreams, and sometimes they take us to places we never anticipate. But they are our dreams, and we go where they lead.

The best heroes in the world are the reluctant ones. Courage isn't fearlessness - it's acting in the face of fear.

Everything's a gamble, love most of all.