Literary Birthday – 4 March – James Ellroy

Happy Birthday, James Ellroy, born 4 March 1948.

Top 10 James Ellroy Quotes

1. I like to think, I like to brood. I like to lie around and let my mind run. I go for a drive so I can think. I lie awake in bed and just follow my imagination.
2. Anybody who doesn’t know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose.
3. America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can’t ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can’t lose what you lacked at conception.
4. I am the son of a murdered woman—anybody who’d call my books misogynistic is, frankly, out of their fucking mind.
5. I don’t know anybody in the underworld. I make this stuff up. I don’t know any criminals.
6. 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.
7. I hire researchers who compile fact sheets and chronologies for me, so that I won’t write myself into error. And then I extrapolate, fictionally.
8. I don’t believe that drama is exclusively character-driven or plot-driven. You can have both of those elements in abundance, and I think that everything I’ve written points that out.
9. Once I write a book I move on.
10. I get up very early in the morning, and I drink lots of coffee. I am computer illiterate—I’m not kidding you. I’ve never used a computer. So I’ve written all of my 17 books, fiction and non-fiction, by hand.

James Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. His 17 books include The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, and American Tabloid.

by Amanda Patterson

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