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I'm way past the idea of using ideology or political view as a gauge of human character. I simply don't believe it. And many people, I tend to think most people, feel that way. Since I don't have to worry about it, I'm happy.

James Ellroy

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James Ellroy
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: March 4
Autobiographer
Crime Writer
Novelist
Screenwriter
Writer
LA
California
Thinking
Human
Worry
Gauge
People
Humans
Since
Gauges
Many
Happy
Ideology
Feel
Idea
Using
Feels
Political
Tend
Believe
Past
View
Way
Character
Views
Think
Ideas
Simply

More quotes by James Ellroy

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I think I'm out of crime fiction now, and I think the dividing line is American Tabloid.
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I think the great unspoken theme in noir fiction is male self-pity. It pervades noir movies.
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Rock and rollers can get you the youth buzz, and younger people are fanatical readers.
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There's none with me, although you've seen me before - I'm outrageous.
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If I wanted to make money I would have written another novel.
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I always cringe when a male friend of mine, who's very fixated on women, puts compatibility at the top of his list of attributes that he would be looking for in a woman. I would replace compatibility with dialectic.
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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.
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I like to have fun out there. I work hard, and then I get to cut loose and go out and tour, and I enjoy it. I like to go out and meet the people. I love to sell books.
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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.
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Closure is a preposterous concept worthy of the worst aspects of American daytime TV.
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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.
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There are a lot of Ellroy lifts, man. This guy went to school. But then there's a willful thing that comes over me - God gives it to me - where I go, That's real nice, let's just go home, pat yourself on the back, good dog, good dog, and wake up in the morning and go to work.
James Ellroy
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I'm trying to be less bombastic. I love my books. I think I've done things nobody else has done.
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I begin by assembling notes on characters. Large swaths of the plot become clear to me as I do this.
James Ellroy
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We do. Or re-create the ones we have, and project. My whole life is projection.
James Ellroy
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I learn things late-and only the hard way.
James Ellroy
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I don't want to recover from writing this book [The Onion]. I feel very poised. I feel like I'm with my mother for the first time ever. I feel like I've confronted her, and the confrontation goes on.
James Ellroy
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I'm grateful for the life I have. I lived bad for many years, and I've got a great life now. I've got the kind of life people only dream about.
James Ellroy
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I don't feel in any way obligated to remain current with the culture. I feel no social obligation whatsoever. I trust my morality in the narrow path I trek through the world as I work.
James Ellroy
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I cleaned up. I quit drinking, I quit doing drugs, I quit stealing, I quit breaking into houses, I tried to quit being a bad human being. I developed a conscience later in life than many. I call it the lost-time-regained dynamic.
James Ellroy