ANDREW VACHSS

I didn't start out angry. I started out a young man wanting adventure.

Fighting means you could lose. Bullying means you can't. A bully wants to beat somebody; he doesn't want to fight somebody.

Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That's why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist.

The third person narrator, instead of being omniscient, is like a constantly running surveillance tape.

All children are born pure egoists. They perceive their needs to the exclusion of all others. Only through socialization do they learn that some forms of gratification must be deferred and others denied.

Building a mechanical device for its appearance is like putting lace on a bowling ball.

I write everything in Courier 12 because I write for publication, not pleasure.

No politician is threatened by the child protective constituency, because it does not exist.

I don't take advances for my books.

A trial is not a search for truth. It is a contest and, often, one that produces no winners.

I believe my publisher has shown a great deal of faith in me over a lot of years but I'm not prepared to be so arrogant to say that the long-term literary value of my work would compensate them for a financial failure.

Ours is a country where anything can be accomplished if enough people get angry... because, in America, we act on our collective anger.

I did criminal defense work part-time, and that paid the bills for representing abused and neglected children... and for defending in juvenile court those kids the 'child protective system' had missed when it had the chance.

Journalism is what maintains democracy. It's the force for progressive social change.

I don't sign contracts for my books.

I don't understand people whose gratification is a BMW. You don't know what joy is until you see a kid who was tortured get adopted by a family.

Without question, I've either got to be a writer, or I fail.

People are pushing against the fabric of society all the time.

Anyone who says, 'Books don't change anything,' or - more commonly - that crime fiction is the wrong genre for promoting social change - should take a closer look.

The sweetest thing I could say about my mother and father is that if I had the choice, I would have picked them. But I don't have any belief in biology or DNA as compelling conduct. The idea that we owe people something because we're related to them is bizarre. But the idea that we owe something because of their conduct towards us is legitimate.

Victimizers of children are the enemies of any so-called society.

In some neighborhoods, if you want to walk down the streets, you've got two choices - look down, or look hard.

I'm in pursuit of what cannot be achieved: perfection.

The idea that you're not a writer until you're published is a lie.

A kid in an abusive home has far fewer rights than any POW. There is no Geneva Convention for kids.