I don't think I came out of anybody. I think I developed out of the influences I described in My Dark Places. American history, L.A. of the 1950s. I'm comfortable with that.

Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose.

I would like to provoke ambiguous responses in my readers.

Tell me anything. Tell me everything. Revoke our time apart. Love me fierce in danger.

L.A.: Come on vacation, go home on probation.

Cats gotta scratch. Dogs gotta bite. I gotta write.

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

Some men get the world, some men get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona. You're in with the former, but my God I don't envy the blood on your conscience.

I've been tremendously moved by a bunch of odd books. Ross McDonald is very important to me. I love the Lew Archer books.

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

I learn things late-and only the hard way.

If you are only focused on the Money... You risk completely overlooking the People.

Unfettered capitalism is a revolutionary force that consumes greater and greater numbers of human lives until it finally consumes itself.

The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.

If everyone really knew what a jerk I am in real life, I wouldn't be so adored in the slightest.

It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines.

True charity is spontaneous and finds its own occasion; it is never the offspring of importunity, nor of emulation.

Write for the right reasons - i.e. yourself.

I know I'm too thin right now, so I wouldn't want any young girl looking at me and saying, 'That's what I want to look like.'

I get psyched about coming onto a Broadway stage every night. it's very exciting. You develop a kind of gratefulness for it when you spend months trying to get a job.

Those who make us happy are always thankful to us for being so; their gratitude is the reward of their benefits.