How did I change my life? I wanted things. I wanted women and I wanted to write books.

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.

Science is theology for an atheist

I was cranked to a fifth gear, and everything I did, I did on a deadline.

I spent most of my life from 24 to 31 at the office. I wasn't going to people's weddings I wasn't cultivating my marriage. I wasn't happy.

The sanest thing in this world is love.

From a self-conscious standpoint, it's hard to see myself on a screen in a way that isn't just me playing music or doing something silly.

The camera is a kind of license.

I'm like a tourist when I'm in London.

I see ghosts everywhere, and that is partially a function of my being incredibly near-sighted and reading way too late into the night.

God is just a statistics.

Freedom is not possible without authority - otherwise it would turn into chaos and authority is not possible without freedom - otherwise it would turn into tyranny.