Deborah Solomon interviewed James Ellroy for the
New York Times Magazine. A couple of their exchanges:
Do you think of yourself as a novelist or as a crime writer?
I am a master of fiction. I am also the greatest crime writer who ever lived. I am to the crime novel in specific what Tolstoy is to the Russian novel and what Beethoven is to music.
How do you know since you say you don’t read other books?
I just know. There is a line from a wonderful Thomas Lux poem: “You’re alone and you know a few things.” I just know that I am that good.
--Marshal Zeringue
Deborah Solomon interviewed James Ellroy for the New York Times Magazine. A couple of their exchanges: