Karin Slaughter

“The familiar trope of the woman in peril doesn't really interest me.”

“I've always been drawn to dark stories. I enjoy reading Flannery O'Connor, Patricia Highsmith, and Margaret Mitchell.”

“Jack Reacher is one of the sexiest characters in fiction.”

“It's hard because people often don't recognise shyness; they think it's just someone being rude. I have had to work to overcome that, especially if I'm meeting my readers at author events, because I don't want them to think I'm snooty or rude.”

“Reading is power. Reading is life.”

“My typical morning involves some time on the treadmill, but obviously I skip that a lot. Mostly, I wake up, check my email, then get to work on the various interviews and questions and phone calls that come with being an author.”

“Libraries are the backbone of our education system.”

“When I'm on a good go, I can do 12, 13 hours of writing.”

“My job isn't to preach to people, it's to entertain them. I like letting the characters speak for themselves.”

“With 'Pretty Girls,' I saw the opportunity to talk not just about crime but what crime leaves behind.”

“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.”

“Crafting a piece of gripping, narrative true crime that engages the world is not that different from crafting a piece of crime fiction.”

“I think being a woman and writing frankly about violence has gotten me some attention, and as someone who wants people to read my books, I can't complain about that attention, but it does puzzle me that this is something reviewers focus on.”

“I've always been drawn to historical fiction.”

“I'm over the word 'like' in conversation, and 'you know' seems to be the placeholder of choice, but when I'm writing dialogue, I tend to use those phrases because that's how people talk.”

“Oh, I'm completely OCD about neatness.”

“I read extensively about serial killers and all sorts of things people get up to.”

“As the youngest of three girls, most of my childhood works were revenge fantasies against my older sisters, so of course the sisters in 'Pretty Girls' share some similarities to my own.”

“Though he was not a reader himself, my father understood that reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.”

“As a writer, I've always felt it's my job to be extremely careful when writing about victims, especially women.”