James Ellroy
James Ellroy
Lee Earle "James" Ellroyis an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz, American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood's a Rover...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth4 March 1948
CountryUnited States of America
If I wanted to make money I would have written another novel.
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.
I almost had an intransigent mental spirit. I always wanted things.
Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose.
Cats gotta scratch. Dogs gotta bite. I gotta write.
I am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective.
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.
We do. Or re-create the ones we have, and project. My whole life is projection.
I don't know anybody in the underworld. I make this stuff up. I don't know any criminals.
To me, there's nothing on earth other than women. It's why I get out of bed every morning.
As a kid, I sensed history going on all around me, but the basic thrust of it didn't move me.
I've created a narrative of the world. I live in the world - tenuously, most times. I've avoided the digital world.
Where’s your sketch pad?” I asked. … “I gave that up,” Kay said. “I wasn’t very good, so I changed my major.” “To what?” “To pre-med, then psychology, then English lit, then history.” “I like a woman who knows what she wants.” Kay smiled. “So do I, but I don’t know any.
L.A.: Come on vacation, go home on probation.