I'm trying to be less bombastic. I love my books. I think I've done things nobody else has done. James Ellroy More Quotes by James Ellroy More Quotes From James Ellroy 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 guysoundbook I don't think I came out of anybody. I think I developed out of the influences I described in My Dark Places. American history, L.A. of the 1950s. I'm comfortable with that. James Ellroy influencedarkthinking Other people, some other writers, will win certain accolades or sell in far greater numbers than me - and I'm a legitimate best-selling author - but I live and die for the work. That's thrilling to me. It's thrilling that I do for others what certain writers did for me when I was a kid. James Ellroy winningnumberskids Periodically I just notch up. And everyone among my colleagues thinks that Perfidia - in its accessibility, its big throbbing heart - will be the biggest notch up yet. We'll see what happens. It's on my ass. James Ellroy assheartthinking I don't think I will write anything that could be even remotely considered a genre novel from this point on. I think I've graduated. James Ellroy genrewritingthinking I needed to address that I've had some profound moral shifts in my own life. James Ellroy addressesmoralprofound If I wanted to make money I would have written another novel. James Ellroy making-moneynovelwanted Anything less than total candor was bullshit. I owed that to my readers, I owed that to myself, and I owed that most specifically to my mother. I've had some thrilling moments in my 18-year literary career to this point, and nothing comes close to giving Geneva Hilliker Ellroy, the farm girl from Tunnel City, Wisconsin, to the world. James Ellroy girltunnelsmother My role relationship to the event will continue to mutate. My relationship to my mother will continue to change as I revise my judgments of her depending on what I learn about her. It goes on. But I feel no less obsessive about my work and no less passionately committed to the life I have now, but I feel poised inside. Which is a good thing to feel at 48. James Ellroy eventsrolesmother I don't feel in any way obligated to remain current with the culture. I feel no social obligation whatsoever. I trust my morality in the narrow path I trek through the world as I work. James Ellroy culturewayworld Classical music fulfills for me the function of narrative. I spend 90 minutes a day listening to symphonic music - Beethoven to Bartók - some chamber pieces, and that's my enrichment. James Ellroy narrativepieceslistening You get up in the morning because you might meet a woman. And if you stay at home by yourself, alone, you will not meet a woman. James Ellroy homemorningmight Sometimes I'll leave the house and go to a delicatessen down the street from me - it's been there a million years - just because I can look at people. James Ellroy housepeopleyears I've created a narrative of the world. I live in the world - tenuously, most times. I've avoided the digital world. James Ellroy digitalnarrativeworld In the time just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Perfidia opens, we were pre-psychologized. There were no concepts of identity, no politics of victimization. Reparation wasn't in the language. Nobody thought about giving the great grandchildren of black slaves so much as $1.98. And all of a sudden the bombs hit, interventionism versus isolationism became a dead issue, and it was us-versus-them in a heartbeat. James Ellroy grandchildrenissuesgiving The lunatic populism that preceded the Pearl Harbor bombing is astonishing in its permutations, its crisscrossings. Guys like [Catholic priest and controversial radio broadcaster] Father Coughlin and [racist and anti-Semitic agitator and founder of the Christian Nationalist Crusade] Gerald L.K. Smith started out as share-the-wealth socialists. James Ellroy guychristianfather And the only forms of socialism in the world that were then getting results - malign ones, as it was - were the Fascist and Soviet republics. Fascism is a form of socialism - you rebuild the country, you find a scapegoat, and you go from there. James Ellroy republiccountryworld I wanted to portray a newly democratized, enclosed society. I wanted to show how extraordinarily fluid people are in their embrace of other human beings. James Ellroy embracefluidpeople Well, the clues are there. They always are. Which is why when crimes are solved decades after the fact, it's obvious that the clues had always been right in front of them. A traffic ticket in Brooklyn is how they got ["Son of Sam" serial killer] David Berkowitz. You've just got to look. James Ellroy serial-killerlooksson I got a woman I'm loyal to above all things, above my career. She's profound to me. I'm quiet. I live in Kansas City. I work. James Ellroy kansas-citycareerscities
