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f3331dc
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Fear and I played peek-a-boo - it always seemed to grab my balls and twist just when it felt like something inside me could banish all the bullshit forever.
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James Ellroy |
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05730e2
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The overarching joy and lasting appeal of noir is that it makes doom fun.
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James Ellroy |
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69d5eec
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If it would've been me, I would've left Hutch out of it. 'Cause Hutch, he was mean.
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James Ellroy |
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63d9b48
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Books and I went back. My old man taught me to read at age three-and-a-half. I bloomed into a classic only child/child-of-divorce autodidact.
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James Ellroy |
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69e5bd7
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He felt sandbagged. Doomsday, Armageddon. Booze begets instant misconduct and regret. He walked to the couch and fell down.
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James Ellroy |
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e650928
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They moved me and scared me. I replayed the tapes and nailed the source of my fear. The women sounded smug. They were entrenched and content in their victimhood.
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James Ellroy |
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efc2956
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She's good to common folk. They make her feel authentic. She covets their approval in small doses.
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perfidia
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James Ellroy |
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410a122
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I roamed L.A. by night. I got repeatedly rousted by LAPD. I sensed that a cop-street fool compact existed. I behaved accordingly. I denied all criminal intent. I acted respectfully. My height-to-weight ratio and unhygienic appearance caused some cops to taunt me. I sparred back. Street schtick often ensued. I mimicked jailhouse jigs like some WASP Richard Pryor. Rousts turned into streetside yukfests. They played like Jack Webb unhinged. I ..
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James Ellroy |
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8d8aa88
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Cab drivers are night-riding denizens of the first order. They view wretched foibles from a gutter perspective.
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James Ellroy |
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b36a7a9
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The driver drove by roadway Braille
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perfidia
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James Ellroy |
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d75522c
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So many wicked ways to scandal-skin a cat.
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James Ellroy |
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45bf225
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Lose thirty pounds within the next thirty days, or I'll have Chief Horrall put you on the 'Fat Husband's Diet' recently extolled in the Ladies' Home Journal.
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James Ellroy |
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2b36c3c
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I loved men and was going mad with suppressed desire. It pushed me into a series of affairs with dubious jazz musicians. Sex was not what I imagined. It was tension, scent and prosaic misalliance. It was sweet and sad revelation, and all expectation dashed.
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James Ellroy |
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7656c73
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Bergen, and Oldfield. The
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James Ellroy |
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c380624
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Canned shtick--Pete gleeful: 'The left one's the hospital, the right one's death. The right one steals your life while the left steals your breath. These hands are bad juju and the bad boogaloo, they're the teeth of the demon as he slides down the flue.
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James Ellroy |
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1dcc535
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I saw crime everywhere. Crime was not isolated incidents destined for ultimate solution and adjudication. Crime was the continual circumstance. It was all day, every day. The ramifications extended to the 12th of Never. This is a policeman's view of crime. I did not know it then.
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James Ellroy |
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a9409f0
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I do three weeks at the Hall of Justice Jail. It's a potent crime primer. I'm the geek that all the pro thugs disdain. I observe them up close. It's the '60s. It's social-grievance-as-justification-for-bad-actions time. My cellmates have sadness raps down. I gain a notch on my crime-as-continuing-circumstance notion. Crime is large-scale individual moral default. That means you, motherfucker.
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James Ellroy |
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adca926
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I am best served in my life's goals if I lay in the dark, brood, sleep, listen to classical music, spend time with my few friends, and chase women. That's what I do. I chase women. I spend time with my few friends. I brood. I sleep. I earn money, and I work.
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James Ellroy |
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1c091e9
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All I have is the will to remember. Time revoked/fever dreams -- I wake up reaching, afraid I'll forget. Pictures keep the woman young. L.A., fall 1958.
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James Ellroy |
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a1026d9
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I had chewed a big steak two hours before, swallowing the juice and spitting out the meat, and I could smell animal blood in my sweat.
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James Ellroy |
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e8603d5
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I got an emergency leave. I visited my dad on his deathbed. His last words to me: "Try to pick up every waitress who serves you."
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James Ellroy |
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8e2044c
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There is no proportion. Pearl Harbor took care of that.
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James Ellroy |
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f924db8
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All dressed up and no one to kill.
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James Ellroy |
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158bc5c
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Scripture-pure veracity and scandal-rag content. That conjunction gives it its sizzle. You carry the seed of belief within you already. You recall the time this narrative captures and sense conspiracy. I am here to tell you that it is all true and not at all what you think. You will read with some reluctance and capitulate in the end. The following pages will force you to succumb. I am going to tell you everything.
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James Ellroy |
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55ae93c
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Those we understand are those we control.
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James Ellroy |
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83eac01
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I told lies and wondered where I would go if my own past was all I had left.
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James Ellroy |
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e8146ec
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Twenty-nine years old and on her third masters degree because she's afraid to go out and meet the world. Sad, isn't it?" Mal sighed. "Tragic."
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James Ellroy |
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8f1dc67
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Pulling away, I realized I had no place to go and nothing I wanted to do except satisfy my curiosity about a woman who was coming on like gangbusters and a big load of grief.
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grief
women
lust
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James Ellroy |
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196e343
|
Claire De Haven and the company cared for the plight of the world. Claire De Haven and the company extolled tyrants and lived for adversarial cliche.
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James Ellroy |
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d28353a
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Epidemic boo-hoo -- 'DON'T TELL MY WIFE!' Leg-shackle clangs -- the prostie vans shook...Panic down below: Shriners bagged en masse. Five men, fez hats flying -- a whore grabbed one and pranced.
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James Ellroy |
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5b730f4
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Big D. November '63. He was there that Big Weekend. He caught the Big Moment and took this Big Ride. He was a sergeant on Vegas PD. He was married. He had a chemistry degree. His father was a big Mormon fat cat. Wayne Senior was jungled up all over the nut Right. He did Klan ops for Mr. Hoover and Dwight Holly. He pushed high-line hate tracts. He rode the far-Right zeitgeist and stayed in the know. He knew about the JFK hit. It was multi-f..
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James Ellroy |
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6bbb73e
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Yes, my friends--it's becoming Jewniversally apparent.
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James Ellroy |
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16b77a0
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All I have is withering perception. Women write diaries in the hope that their words will beckon fate.
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James Ellroy |
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409d83c
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After over six hundred hours of listening, John knew two more things: That the most profound truth lay in the labyrinths that coiled behind a green door in the interviewee's mind the very second that Alfred Kinsey said, "Tell me about your fantasies"; and, two, that with the proper information and the correct stimuli he could get carefully chosen people to break through those doors and act out their fantasies, past moral strictures and the ..
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James Ellroy |
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e2ee97b
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Some of them screamed. Some of them wept. Some of them grinned like LSD was a blast. A case officer said John Stanton hatched the idea - lets flood Cuba with this shit before we invade. Langley co-signed the brainstorm. Langley embellished it: Let's induce mass hallucinations and stage the second coming of Christ!!!! Langley found some suicidal actors. Langley dolled them up to look like J.C. Langley had them set to pre-invade Cuba concurre..
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humourous-quote
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James Ellroy |
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ebf9999
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Looking back, I know that the man possessed no gift of prophecy; he simply worked to assure his own future, while I skated uncertainly toward mine. It was his flat-voiced "Cherchez la femme" that still haunts me. Because our partnership was nothing but a bungling road to the Dahlia. "
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extraordinary
detective
noir
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James Ellroy |
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8baa596
|
There's a trick to lying. Hold to the same line, regardless of who you're with.
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James Ellroy |
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baea7fe
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Envy thou not the oppressor, And choose none of his ways. --Proverbs 3:31
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James Ellroy |
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00d0f79
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Silver Shirts
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James Ellroy |
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bcc1c47
|
bons mots
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James Ellroy |
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e084fe5
|
Facts can be bent to conform to any thesis.
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James Ellroy |
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fd1b27a
|
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 single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception. Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight.
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ellroy
|
James Ellroy |
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9798aaa
|
But who?
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James Ellroy |
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e0bfe7c
|
I walked to the heart of the neon smear.
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James Ellroy |