I don't know anybody in the underworld. I make this stuff up. I don't know any criminals.

The 1950s to me is darkness, hidden history, perversion behind most doors waiting to creep out. The 1950s to most people is kitsch and Mickey Mouse watches and all this intolerable stuff.

Dead people belong to the live people who claim them most obsessively.

As critical acclaim and response has built up, every interview I give is a chance to puncture the myth I've created about my work and refine it.

Every one of my books is written from the viewpoint of cops, with the exception of my book Killer on the Road, which is written from the viewpoint of a serial killer.

You try to learn who you are. You work hard. You've either got it or you don't when it comes to writing books. And you tend to only get these things if you want them, and want them to the exclusion of everything else.

[Raymond] Chandler, I reread him, and there's a lot of bad writing there. I don't think he knew much about people.