Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Ellroy gets Peaced...

Somewhat behind with the Saturday papers this week. Finally got round to reading the James Ellroy and David Peace in conversation spread in Guardian Review. Two great writers with the ability to shock readers, and both having based their fiction on fact. Rather alarming photograph of the pair. Peace was interviewer, Ellroy interviewee. Nice research methods revealed by Ellroy who, unlike Peace, does not spend a year in a library but, instead, hires researchers who "compile factsheets and chronologies for me". Anyway, here's the Ellroy quote to regurgitate in writing class (What writing class? - WTF editor):

"I spend a lot of time alone, thinking. And I avoid the culture. I don't go to movies. I don't read newspapers. Here's what I mean: I'm not a rich man. I pay alimony. I pay taxes. But I don't have to support a family. So I have this assistant. So I don't have to go to the fucking store. I don't have a computer. She does my email ... I live a very, very simple interior life that allows this stuff to build in me and come to me slowly over time. And the voices come to me. And the situations come to me. So I don't think about very many things. And those few things I think about, I think about intensely. So I am able to take small bits of information and infuse them with verisimility." James Ellroy

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