Fiona Barton

“Over the years, I've interviewed the victims, the guilty, the famous, the important, and the ordinary people affected by tragedy or good fortune. But strangely, it is not always the people in the spotlight that have stayed with me. It is often those on the periphery, the bit players in the drama, that continue to haunt.”

“It's amazing to me that journalists are held in such low esteem.”

“Garrison Keillor's 'Lake Wobegon' books create a world I can immerse myself in over and over. I love the deadpan humour, the warmth, and the wonderful characters in The Sidetrack Tap. I discovered them when I was about 30, starting with 'Leaving Home' and 'We Are Still Married,' and fell in love with the place and those flat Midwestern vowels.”

“It's a strange feeling, owning a secret. It's like a stone in my stomach, crushing my insides and making me feel sick every time I think of it.”

“Donna Tartt is a genius.”

“As a reporter, I spent a great deal of time in court. During brief breaks in testimony, I would often look at the spouse, usually the wife, of the accused. I began to wonder how listening to the details of a crime purportedly committed by your spouse would affect that person's view of her husband.”

“As a journalist, your words are regularly read by lots of people, but they're not your words: they're someone else's. You're quoting people.”

“Since reading 'Sophie's Choice,' I have been haunted by the agonizing idea of choosing between two children.”

“Yes, there are bad apples, but I do feel journalists do a good job, often in very difficult circumstances.”

“When you think about it, psychological thrillers often involve extraordinary events happening to ordinary people.”

“The righting of historic wrongs has chimed with something fundamental in me since I was a young reader. I love the forensic skills, the psychological insights, and the sheer bloody-mindedness of various detectives - professional or accidental - inching toward the truth of a long-buried secret.”

“People say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. They say that when you been through something terrible ... But it doesn't. It breaks your bones, leaving everything splintered and held together with grubby bandages and yellowing sticky tape. Creaking along the fault lines, Fragile and exhausting to hold together. Sometimes you wish it had killed you.”

“A lot of people think journalists are criminals, and there are some who haven't helped us. But the media is essential for democratic society.”

“When I first became a journalist, people said, 'Oh, that must be interesting.' They saw it as slightly glamorous, slightly edgy. They wanted to know more.”

“The secrets of small towns have fascinated writers and readers since the first psychological thriller was penned.”

“The emotions, responsibilities - and the pain - of motherhood are unique to each of us with children. Ask any woman, and she will have her own story to tell.”

“Writing is not just about putting words on a page. Ideas have to cook first.”

“I like my villains clever, deep, and driven by pure evil.”

“Once you write a book, you hand it over to the readers, and it's their book then. They're so involved. They ask questions about details that I haven't even thought about.”

“It's a wonderful experience to be reading a story and think you've got things all figured out, and then suddenly, it all goes upside-down on you.”