James Ellroy Quotes & Sayings

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

“I would like to provoke ambiguous responses in my readers.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“Noir is dead for me because historically, I think it's a simple view. I've taken it as far as it can go. I think I've expanded on it a great deal, taken it further than any other American novelist.”

“Raymond Chandler once wrote that Dashiell Hammett gave murder back to the people who really committed it.”

“I want to see these bad, bad, bad, bad men come to grips with their humanity.”

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

“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.”