“A single moment spent in a business meeting or at a pub is more than enough to reveal the basic human truth that we are all faking it most of the time.”

“A single moment spent in a business meeting or at a pub is more than enough to reveal the basic human truth that we are all faking it most of the time. We congratulate a rival on a triumph when actually we are choking on spite. We are cordial and attentive to crashing bores.”

“Every writer must find a way of writing that tells the reader: This is me and no one else. The Voice can be idiosyncratic, but it cannot be obscure. It is a blend of style and content and intent and rhythm and pure personality.”

“Everybody believes that capital punishment is wrong, but when they look at certain cases, they're quick to say, 'Put them to death,' or scream 'capital punishment.'”

“Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.”

“I don't agree with capital punishment as it is now, because too often mistakes are made. But I think that if you eliminate the mistakes, then there are times when it is justified.”

“I had been writing poems and stories since I learned to make letters. I had placed poems in a hardcover anthology at the age of 6. And I knew more big words than anyone else in the 10th grade.”

“I know a lot of law officers, and every single one of them faces a moment - usually after about three hours on the job - when they realise that there's no connection between law and justice. The law, as an institution, avoids justice, subverts it, just as often as it sees it done.”

“I need quiet and solitude to work. Darkness is best. If I am wide awake, I can't write.”

“I question every word; I write 'the' and immediately feel scorn. It's such an ordinary word - everybody uses it - why can't I come up with something original? In the sunlight, every single word seems hackneyed.”

“I try to write as serious as possible, and then a joke slips in.”

“I was expecting someone dark to play 'Dexter' - someone like Johnny Depp.”

“If you look at the primitive societies that we know about, the worst thing that could have happened to you was to be captured and be turned over to the women.”

“If you look at Victorian England, being a soldier was considered a noble profession.”

“In the afternoon, it's impossible to put down any new words. I don't even try.”

“It was a tremendous stroke of good luck that the show got Michael C. Hall to play the part. Everyone I've talked to thinks Michael is a perfect 'Dexter,' which never happens.”

“Later, in the afternoon, I read what I did that morning. It's almost always a surprise. But I can read it rationally; edit, polish, re-write, and think what I might do tomorrow in the early darkness.”

“Life would certainly be easier if we all came equipped with our own personal FAQ lists. When we meet someone, we could pass them a business card with the list on the back, and then step back and let them read before we tried to talk.”

“My first true lesson in writing came from Mr. Bowden when I was 16. At my high school, he was the teacher known to be the very best at literature and writing.”

“No TV show in history, no movie ever made - nothing you can imagine as being written or filmed or performed can turn a normal human being into a Dexter.”

“Pretending is the basis of civilised society, and it is sometimes necessary for all of us. Without it we are nothing more than a pack of snarling dogs.”

“Sociopaths don't have feelings; they can't.”

“Someone who is not a killer is not going to watch a TV show and decide to be a killer.”

“We're predators; we don't eat meat because it's handy, we eat meat because we have a taste for blood.”

“What my research told me is that a psychopath cannot change. You're born like that.”

“When I was a playwright earlier in my career - my senior project in high school was my first produced play - I used to put on the title page: 'A tragedy with laughs.'”