192 Quotes by James Ellroy

Other people, some other writers, will win certain accolades or sell in far greater numbers than me – and I’m a legitimate best-selling author – but I live and die for the work. That’s thrilling to me. It’s thrilling that I do for others what certain writers did for me when I was a kid.

Periodically I just notch up. And everyone among my colleagues thinks that Perfidia – in its accessibility, its big throbbing heart – will be the biggest notch up yet. We’ll see what happens. It’s on my ass.

I indulge prayer when the world seems incomprehensible and only a plea to the incomprehensible makes sense.

Bergen, and Oldfield. The.

You’d be better served taxing your conscience for those who deserve your regret.

All I have is withering perception. Women write diaries in the hope that their words will beckon fate.

There’s a beast in me. I destroy those I cannot control. I must be certain that those close to me share my identical interests. I’m benevolent within that construction. I’m ghastly outside of it.

Those we understand are those we control.

Future writers hide inside books and snort up the craft by enjoyment. They read and learn structure and style. Their curiosity points them to subject matter.