William Landay

Predisposition is not predestination.

— William Landay

the act does not create guilt unless the mind is also guilty.

— William Landay

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

— William Landay

There are many more ways to be attractive than to be beautiful.

— William Landay

“Like I knew it was bad. And there were these posters.”

— William Landay

I'm a bit of a tech geek myself.

— William Landay

“A hint of nonconformity was all he would risk.”

— William Landay

“A good marriage drags a long tail of memory behind it.”

— William Landay

At some point as adults we cease to be our parents' children and we become our children's parents instead.

— William Landay

“We are pattern-seeking, storytelling animals, and have been since we began drawing on cave walls.”

— William Landay

“It is, of course, the last resort of a liar to challenge his inquisitor to call him a liar directly.”

— William Landay

“We’re not arguing. We’re discussing.” “You’re a lawyer; you don’t know the difference. I’m arguing.”

— William Landay

“Here is the dirty little secret: the error rate in criminal verdicts is much higher than anyone imagines.”

— William Landay

I love sports, as all Bostonians seem to. I love books and movies, as all writers seem to.

— William Landay

“I admit--no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed-”

— William Landay

“But things were racing too fast to linger over the past or future. There was only now.”

— William Landay

“defendant … snap. “So what was that trigger? What was it that converted a fantasy of murder into the real thing?” He paused. It…

— William Landay

“It was as if there was a place called After, and if I could just push my family across to that shore,…

— William Landay

“This is an aspect of crime stories I never fully appreciated until I became one: it is so ruinously expensive to mount…

— William Landay

“Grand juries serve for months, and they figure out pretty quickly what the gig is all about: accuse, point your finger, name…

— William Landay

“narcissistic personality disorder. This is the one you probably know something about. Its primary characteristics are grandiosity and lack of empathy.”

— William Landay

“There is an ancient rule: actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea -- the act does not create guilt unless the…

— William Landay

“All they got locked up in this hole is my body. That's all they got, my body, not me. I'm everywhere, see?…

— William Landay

“Witness: I thought it was a mistake. Based on what we knew at the time, it was a mistake to turn away…

— William Landay

The rest-the vast majority, tens of thousands of days-are unremarkable, repetitive, even monotonous. We glide through them then instantly forget them. We…

— William Landay

“Every father knows the disconcerting when you see your child as a weird, distorted double of yourself. It is as if for…

— William Landay

“In a long life there are thirty or thirty-five thousand days to be got through, but only a few dozen that really…

— William Landay

But sometimes you can't figure everything out because you can't ever really understand other people. You can't understand why they do what…

— William Landay

When I was 30 or so - by that time I had become an assistant D.A. - I decided I would try…

— William Landay

“My childhood ended that summer. I learned the word murder. But it is not enough to be told a word as big…

— William Landay

“They were chosen for their perfect ignorance of these things. That is how the system works. In the end, the lawyers and…

— William Landay

“With the minivan in the air, rolling counterclockwise, the engine racing, Laurie screaming -- a fraction of a second, that's all --…

— William Landay

“I do not believe in the court system, at least I do not think it is especially good at finding the truth.…

— William Landay

“The leopard in the zoo wanders to the edge of his pen and, through the bars or across an unjumpable moat, he…

— William Landay

“stupid things. The interior of a teenager’s mind is an endless war between Stupid and Clever; this was just a case of…

— William Landay

You know, being confident isn't the same as being right.

— William Landay

I am interested in computers and technology, and art, photography, and design.

— William Landay

“Our blind trust in the system is the product of ignorance and magical thinking,”

— William Landay

Crime and legal stories, broadly speaking, are just where my interest happens to lie.

— William Landay

The interior of a teenager’s mind is an endless war between Stupid and Clever.

— William Landay