Quotes by James Ellroy

About James Ellroy:

Lee Earle "James" Ellroy is 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 (1987), The Big Nowhere (1988), L.A. Confidential (1990), White Jazz (1992), American Tabloid (1995), The Cold Six Thousand (2001), and Blood's a Rover (2009).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

There's a kid or some kids somewhere. I'll never know them. They're particle-puzzle-cubing right now. They might be mini-misanthropes from Moosefart, Montana. They might be demi-dystopians from Dogdick, Delaware. They dig my demonic dramas. The metap...

James Ellroy

Cherchez la femme, Bucky. Remember that.

James Ellroy

It all came down to money - the great equalizer and common denominator.

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

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.

James Ellroy

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

James Ellroy

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

James Ellroy

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

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

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

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 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 bri...

James Ellroy

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

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 am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective.

James Ellroy

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

James Ellroy

Every one of my books is written from the viewpoint of cops, with the exception of my book Killer on the Road, which is written from the viewpoint of a serial killer.

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

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

James Ellroy

I would like to provoke ambiguous responses in my readers.

James Ellroy

Author Bio

  • NameJames Ellroy
  • DescriptionNovelist, short story writer, essayist, memoirist
  • BornMarch 4, 1948
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist; Autobiographer