Sometimes I'll leave the house and go to a delicatessen down the street from me - it's been there a million years - just because I can look at people.

Joe Wambaugh's a friend. I know him only casually, but I like him a lot. I think he likes my books.

I don't think I came out of anybody. I think I developed out of the influences I described in My Dark Places. American history, L.A. of the 1950s. I'm comfortable with that.

You get up in the morning because you might meet a woman. And if you stay at home by yourself, alone, you will not meet a woman.

I don't want to recover from writing this book [The Onion]. I feel very poised. I feel like I'm with my mother for the first time ever. I feel like I've confronted her, and the confrontation goes on.

How did I change my life? I wanted things. I wanted women and I wanted to write books.

I almost had an intransigent mental spirit. I always wanted things.