James Ellroy Quotes

• 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

• The truth of the matter is, you lose a parent to murder when you’re 10 years old, and in fact at the time of the murder you hate your lost parent, my mother in my case.

  James Ellroy

• Rock and rollers can get you the youth buzz, and younger people are fanatical readers.

  James Ellroy

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

  James Ellroy

• 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.

  James Ellroy

• My mother and I will continue on some level that I haven’t determined yet. I think my mother’s a great character, and I have to say that giving my mother to the world has to be the biggest thrill of my writing career.

  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

• I’m getting a wider circle of fans now. More women, more middle class people.

  James Ellroy

• I’m clenched down, I’m locked in on it, which is my general approach to life.

  James Ellroy

• I would like to provoke ambiguous responses in my readers.

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

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

  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 haven’t been to a movie in a year and a half.

  James Ellroy

• I have a very intense marriage.

  James Ellroy

• I don’t know anybody in the underworld. I make this stuff up. I don’t know any criminals.

  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 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

James Ellroy (26)

Birth:	4th March, 1948
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Novelist, Writer

About

Lee Earle "James" Ellroy was born in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is an American crime fiction writer. He has written several novels include: Brown's Requiem, Clandestine, Killer on the Road, Blood on the Moon, Because the Night, Suicide Hill, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz, American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, Blood's a Rover, and Perfidia. He has written several short stories include: Hollywood Nocturnes, Crime Wave, and Destination: Morgue!. He has written several autobiography include: My Dark Places and The Hilliker Curse.

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