I'm way past the idea of using ideology or political view as a gauge of human character. I simply don't believe it. And many people, I tend to think most people, feel that way. Since I don't have to worry about it, I'm happy.

America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.

I wanted things. Whatever it cost and whatever it took, I would do it. And that's it.

When I look at Perfidia, I think, "That's a Pulitzer Prize winner. That's a National Book Award winner." It's not going to get it. It's going to be shelved in crime and it's just the way it is. I've done something that no one else has ever done; I've started out as a mystery writer, a police writer, and a crime writer, and I became something entirely different.

I think I'm out of crime fiction now, and I think the dividing line is American Tabloid.

Cats gotta scratch. Dogs gotta bite. I gotta write.

I don't think I will write anything that could be even remotely considered a genre novel from this point on. I think I've graduated.