In the time just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when Perfidia opens, we were pre-psychologized. There were no concepts of identity, no politics of victimization. Reparation wasn't in the language. Nobody thought about giving the great grandchildren of black slaves so much as $1.98. And all of a sudden the bombs hit, interventionism versus isolationism became a dead issue, and it was us-versus-them in a heartbeat.

I am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective.

I've created a narrative of the world. I live in the world - tenuously, most times. I've avoided the digital world.

And the only forms of socialism in the world that were then getting results - malign ones, as it was - were the Fascist and Soviet republics. Fascism is a form of socialism - you rebuild the country, you find a scapegoat, and you go from there.

As much as I transferred my mother to Elizabeth Shore of The Black Dahlia, as much as her dad mutated into an obsession with crime in general, well, I have thought about other things throughout the years.

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.

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.