I am a master of fiction. I am also the greatest crime novelist who ever lived. I am to the crime novel in specific what Tolstoy is to the Russian no….

My guys are morally weak, and they reach toward a tenuous knowledge of self-sacrifice, and sometimes it's too late. I find that moving. It's not a li….

Every one of my books is written from the viewpoint of cops, with the exception of my book Killer on the Road, which is written from the viewpoint of….

I wanted to portray a newly democratized, enclosed society. I wanted to show how extraordinarily fluid people are in their embrace of other human bei….

For a much lauded writer, I'm not terribly self-absorbed. In social situations, which are difficult for me - I mean, this is an interview - I'm norma….

I was in L.A. in '08. It was a cold Saturday night. I had spread my phone number out to a score of women and was just indulging this sweet, sad, eleg….

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

There's none with me, although you've seen me before - I'm outrageous..

I don't have children. I serve the world and I serve God by living as deep within my work as I can, reveling in the language of other times and putti….

It was easy not to think of my future; I didn't have one..

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

As a kid, I sensed history going on all around me, but the basic thrust of it didn't move me..

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

America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any singl….

You're grounded!!!! You can't go out and prowl the L.A. streets. You've got to do something more edifying, emboldening and altogether more groovy. Yo….

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….

The wildest ride in modern crime novel exoticum. A novel so steeped in milieu that it feels as if you've blasted to mars in the grip of a demon who w….

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..

Sometimes I'll leave the house and go to a delicatessen down the street from me - it's been there a million years - just because I can look at people..

I drank, I used drugs, I broke into houses, sniffed women's undergarments. I ate Benzedrex inhalers, jacked off for 18 hours at a pop, lived with my ….

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 ….