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

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.

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.

Our shared world is humanly unquantifiable and ideologically confused. Which one of them is capable of implementing the most recognizable harm or good?

Film brings people together.

But the aspect of secrets is they leak out. If they didn't leak, they wouldn't be interesting.

My life comes down to three moments: the death of my father, meeting my husband, and the birth of my daughter. Everything I did previous to that just doesn't seem to add up to very much.

Education alone can conduct us to that enjoyment which is, at once, best in quality and infinite in quantity.

At some point we must realize that actively defending against radical Islamic teachings is not a matter of cultural relativity. It is a matter of universally recognized human rights.

There are lot of bands that have too many songs, I think.

I'm very emotional. I do feel stuff, for better or worse.

Nightmares end. That's how you know they're nightmares.

If you want to put on a suit and come to church, fine. But it's a problem when you make people feel like, if you don't do this, you're not going to be accepted and God doesn't look at that.

I hate changes of administrations, because I have all my villains in place and they are all taken away and replaced with faceless wonders nobody knows.