I think I'm out of crime fiction now, and I think the dividing line is American Tabloid.

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.

Every book is its own black hole. Don’t fight the pull

There is no burden in love, because love is always selfish

The breeze is cold and refreshing, I draw the night into my lungs and try to calm myself down.

Childlike in faith means the daily acknowledgment of utter dependence and that I owe my life and being to another.

Any good album title has multiple meanings, and I like choosing titles where I find myself repeating it, almost like a mantra.

We often mock Barack Obama for whining about Fox News. So it's now what Donald Trump is doing? Should we be mocking him for doing the same thing? I know. It is hypocritical if we don't.

Don't avoid eye contact and don't be late

It's in the valley of failure that we sow our seeds of success.

Nobody changes. Nobody gets hurt.

Slowly but surely, the U.S. military is being converted into a global oil-protection service.