Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose.
James Ellroy

As a kid, I sensed history going on all around me, but the basic thrust of it didn't move me.
James Ellroy

As critical acclaim and response has built up, every interview I give is a chance to puncture the myth I've created about my work and refine it.
James Ellroy

As much as I transferred my mother to Elizabeth Shore of The Black Dahlia, as much as her dad mutated into an obsession with crime in general, well, I have thought about other things throughout the years.
James Ellroy

Every one of my books is written from the viewpoint of cops, with the exception of my book Killer on the Road, which is written from the viewpoint of a serial killer.
James Ellroy

I am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective.
James Ellroy

I am conservative by temperament. I disapprove of criminal activity. I am very solidly and markedly on the side of authority. The truth is I would rather err on the side of too much authority than too little.
James Ellroy

I am the most well-adjusted human being I know. I started out this investigation as a very happy man with a great career. I've got the life people dream about: I am rich, I am famous, I've got a fabulous marriage to an absolutely, spell-bindingly brilliant woman.
James Ellroy

I don't know anybody in the underworld. I make this stuff up. I don't know any criminals.
James Ellroy

I have a very intense marriage.
James Ellroy


I haven't been to a movie in a year and a half.
James Ellroy

I like to be alone so I can write. But focus can hurt you. I don't want to be some stress casualty in early middle age.
James Ellroy

I love thinking about American history, thinking about LA history. I love brooding on crime.
James Ellroy

I put on such a good show, the story is outrageous, and people don't want to hear that I'm basically a reasonable human being. As long as it continues to get me print, I'll continue to perform in an exuberant manner.
James Ellroy

I want to see these bad, bad, bad, bad men come to grips with their humanity.
James Ellroy

I was a WASP kid going to a high school that was 99 percent Jewish and I wanted attention and I wanted to make a spectacle of myself because I couldn't stand to be ignored.
James Ellroy

I would like to provoke ambiguous responses in my readers.
James Ellroy

I'm clenched down, I'm locked in on it, which is my general approach to life.
James Ellroy

I'm getting a wider circle of fans now. More women, more middle class people.
James Ellroy

I've been tremendously moved by a bunch of odd books. Ross McDonald is very important to me. I love the Lew Archer books.
James Ellroy