“Good crime writing holds up a mirror to the readers and reflects in a ...” — Karin Slaughter Quote

Good crime writing holds up a mirror to the readers and reflects in a darker light the world in which they live.

My books are never about the crimes. They are about how the characters react to the crimes.

I thought I had to write literature and add my name to the list of great Southern storytellers. Fortunately for me, no one wanted to read any of those stories. They got rejected by everyone. Sometimes, I would get a note saying they liked the writing, but the story simply didn't work.

Jack Reacher is one of the sexiest characters in fiction.

As awful as crime can be, it's what happens afterward - the struggling to get out of bed, to put one foot in front of the other - that alters people.

I think that there have definitely been points when I've had to fight to move my career in a different direction. I think, 2012, I did a few movies that touched on a darker side, and those are movies I'd been wanting to make and stories I'd been wanting to tell for a while. So I think it definitely takes work to move genres.

If you have good songs and a real desire to make music, the next thing to do, instead of approach record companies, is to get yourself a really good manager because then it allows you to focus on your profession of being a musician. Then they can focus on the darker art of the record label and the music industry.

Crime makes for great drama and it's interesting because it delves into the darker side of us. Those kind of stories go way back, the detective and the criminal.

I think that 'Hangover II' is as funny as 'The Hangover I,' honest to God, but I think that it's a little bit darker, and the stakes are a little bit higher.