top of page
"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."
Standard
Customized
Exlpore more Family quotes

"Of course, everyone's parents are embarrassing. It goes with the territory. The nature of parents is to embarrass merely by existing, just as it is the nature of children of a certain age to cringe with embarrassment, shame, and mortification should their parents so much as speak to them on the street."

"The arrangements that couples make in order to maintain civility in the midst of their journey to divorce are often most elaborate when the professed top priority is to protect a child."

"No father knows that he is carrying his son up the stairs for the final time."

"All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

"A wise woman protects her kids. A wiser woman hangs out with police officers, retired FBI agents and private investigators."

"Fear is the mother of morality."

"He who loses his mother loses a pure soul who blesses and guards him constantly."
Explore more quotes by 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."

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."
bottom of page