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.

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.

If you really one to become great, you must practice the rule of ten thousand hours.

The cool thing about my show and me is that I'm a writer, and I'm a writer first if I don't have music.

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

Identity is invariably false to facts.

Even for the dead I will not bind my soul to grief, death cannot long divide; for is it not as if the rose that climbed my garden wall had bloomed the other side?

America saw me as a projection of me that I always wanted. Thats why I love going to America so much. I feel like I started off in America exactly how I wanted to start everywhere.

Take the cards out of your wallet. A debit card is accepted just about everywhere that credit cards are, and you'll be spending money you have - always a good thing.

I miss the city Bret and I live in, Wellington. It's a good place to be creative, in the same way New York is.

Dying without actually fully living, without waking up to our lives while we have the chance, is an ongoing and significant risk.

And if you're not going to have a clear health threat, you don't want to panic people.