Sandra Brown

“From what I know of you already, you have quite a reputation for providing customer satisfaction."Julie's cheeks burned. For Kate's benefit she said, "I try." "Oh, I'm certain you do more than try. You go all out." He paused for several beats. Then, "I've driven past the gallery thousands of times and always admired the works displayed in the windows. But I haven't had a reason to stop.""And now you did?""Now I did."She drew herself up. "Well, I'm sure Katherine will find the perfect piece for you. She's very knowledgeable.""He came to see you.""That's right, Ms. Rutledge. Not that Ms. Fields isn't perfectly charming and, I'm sure, knowledgeable." He shot Kate a smile over his shoulder, which she returned before he came back around to Julie. "But I'm placing myself in your very capable hands.”

“His gut was stitched up good and tight, but that didn’t prevent it from flopping. He wiped his damp palms on the legs of his jeans and stood up shakily, leaning heavily on his cane.He called himself a masochist for putting himself through this torture day after day.He braced himself for the disappointment of having to go home alone.He braced himself for happiness like he’d never known in his entire life.He watched the door they would come through.”

“My first computer was an IBM Display Writer. With all its components, it was roughly the size of a bass fishing boat.”

“In my opinion, Armani, better than any other designer, does great things for the female form. And a pair of Levis does great things for the male physique. Not that I look.”

“For each book, there's a back story of where the idea came from. Sometimes it's derived from a current event or topic of discussion, such as 'Deadline.'”

“I know I'm not creating transcendent works that will someday be taught in college. All I do is entertain. I try to entertain others by sending them into another world for a few hours. When I see my books read on the beach, the pages dabbed with suntan lotion, then I feel as if I've done my job.”

“I always try to incorporate something in every book that I've never used before. Hopefully, spontaneity will keep readers reading.”

“Life throws surprises, sorrows, sadness, and hardship, and I think that writing has actually grounded me. It kept me grounded when everything else was falling apart.”

“I have always found writing very difficult.”

“Rarely does a complete idea come to me. I basically start with just a small scene or a snatch of dialogue and force myself to write and to keep writing. Sometimes it becomes a book.”

“Be prepared to work hard to be a writer.”

“'Rainwater' was particularly special because it was a complete departure from the suspense novels. It's set in the Great Depression and based on an incident that occurred when my dad was a boy.”

“Writing 'Rainwater' was a refreshing change of pace... a change of everything, in fact.”

“People don't care how smart woman is as long as she's charming and gay and pretty.”

“Women readers aren`t turned on by nice heroes any more than male readers lust after heroines who are too virtuous.There should be at least a hint,maybe even a promise, of corruptibility.”

“What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it? Writing requires you make sacrifices. Be prepared to work hard to be a writer.”

“It was kind of a hard lesson when I figured out that not everybody is going to be kind, be sweet. So I've learned that I am never going to make everybody happy. There's always going to be someone who can't stand the way I write, and I can't take that personally.”

“I'm no cook, but I love to eat. Usually, food tastes best when there isn't a recipe, just a cook who knows what foods and seasonings go well together.”

“My mother was a big reader, and my father was an editorial writer for a newspaper.”

“Typically, I have a fairly good grip on the plot of a suspense novel before I set about writing it. I must know beforehand how the mystery ultimately will be solved.”