Closure is a preposterous concept worthy of the worst aspects of American daytime TV. James Ellroy More Quotes by James Ellroy More Quotes From James Ellroy When I look at Perfidia, I think, "That's a Pulitzer Prize winner. That's a National Book Award winner." It's not going to get it. It's going to be shelved in crime and it's just the way it is. I've done something that no one else has ever done; I've started out as a mystery writer, a police writer, and a crime writer, and I became something entirely different. James Ellroy awards book thinking "War gives men a plain-and-simple something to do ... Women write diaries in the hope that their words will beckon fate." It's a romantic manifesto. James Ellroy fate writing war I don't have a cellphone or a computer. I deliberately circumscribe my mental life within the periods that I write about, and the power of Perfidia is that it's the result of complete immersion. I was there for the two years that it took me to write that book. James Ellroy writing book years Some people don’t respond to civility. James Ellroy civility people I don't have children. I serve the world and I serve God by living as deep within my work as I can, reveling in the language of other times and putting it forth for the world. James Ellroy language children world I begin by assembling notes on characters. Large swaths of the plot become clear to me as I do this. James Ellroy notes plot character As a kid, I sensed history going on all around me, but the basic thrust of it didn't move me. James Ellroy thrust kids moving I was in L.A. in '08. It was a cold Saturday night. I had spread my phone number out to a score of women and was just indulging this sweet, sad, elegiac, bale loneliness - don't tell me you haven't been there. James Ellroy loneliness sweet night 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 dad mother years When I was a kid, Eisenhower had been President forever, and all of a sudden, everything in the world was all about Jack Kennedy. I was 12, interested in politics; my father was from Massachusetts, had an accent like Kennedy. James Ellroy forever father kids It was easy not to think of my future; I didn't have one. James Ellroy my-future easy thinking I think I'm out of crime fiction now, and I think the dividing line is American Tabloid. James Ellroy tabloids fiction thinking I would like to provoke ambiguous responses in my readers. James Ellroy provoking ambiguous reader 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 criminals too-much littles I work within the framework of a very concerted, purely driven Protestant Christian mindset. I had dark early circumstances. I went inward. I have a sturdy will. I have a big heart. I'm a decent guy. And I have a great gift. It's blunted me to the world in many ways. James Ellroy christian dark heart I kept saying, "Stop me now. It's going to my head." I got some photos. Really, I did! It's not my noblest sexual self in these moments, but I want to have fun. I want to undress. I get off my leash to go out and perform. Some other writers are just discomforted by the way I behave in public. Because they're loath to perform. James Ellroy self want fun There's none with me, although you've seen me before - I'm outrageous. James Ellroy outrageous I want to have enough data, so I won't write myself into thin air, so that I can extrapolate and give you this secret human infrastructure. The only way I sate my own curiosity is to create this from scratch. There must be commanding love stories. There must be great moral cost. James Ellroy data air writing I have insane curiosity as to what happened in all these events. I will never know. I'm not a researcher. I don't possess that kind of mind. I have a researcher who compiles the fact sheets and chronologies that allow me to write these big books of mine. James Ellroy curiosity writing book I'd never been interested in the Kennedy assassination until '88, when I read Libra. And from that point, I went out and bought the existing Kennedy theory books, most of which are outlandish. But what DeLillo posits - some rogue CIA guys - is the most dramatically sound, plausible explanation for it. James Ellroy guy sound book
