Luin Paris Review'n haastattelua James Ellroystä syksyltä 2009 ja lainaan siitä muutaman kohdan:

I do have a complex relationship with authoritarianism. I’d rather live in a society that errs on the side of authoritarianism than a society that errs on the side of permissiveness. Try telling that to a woman and see if you get laid.

Muistan lukeneeni samankaltaista tekstiä keväällä 2009.

Chandler wrote the kind of guy that he wanted to be, Hammett wrote the kind of guy that he was afraid he was.

Tämän olen lukenut ennenkin. Saattaa olla aika hyvin sanottu. Ja tämä: 

I’m a Christian. I’m a proponent of Judaism, and I see Judaism and Christianity as the through-lines of the rule of law in world history. I love the Reformation. I am of the Reformation—that moment when you stand alone with God. More than anything else, I am an enormous believer in God, the God who saved my wretched, tormented ass so many times.

Sanon fraasin: tuohon ei ole lisäämistä. Eikä tuosta ole poistamista. L.A. Confidentialista:

When I handed in the novel, my editor told me I had to cut more than a hundred pages, without altering the thematic emphasis or shifting any of the specific scenes. Because the story was violent, and full of action, I saw the value of writing in a fast, clipped style. So I cut every unnecessary word from every sentence.

Kursivointi minun. White Jazzista ja sen päähenkilöstä:

I saw that if I eliminated words from his speech, I would develop a more convincing cadence for him: paranoid, jagged, enervated.

Kursivointi minun. Tyylistä vielä:

Minimalism implies small events, small people, a small story. Man, that’s the antithesis of me. Telegraphic means straight sentences—subject, verb, repetitions with slight modifications.

Ja lopuksi James Ellroyn näkemys kirjailijanlaadustaan:

You want swagger, look at Norman Mailer. I don’t go around beating people up. I’m just James Ellroy, the self-promoting demon dog. It comes naturally to me. You call it swagger, I call it joie de vivre.

Mitähän swagger tarkoittaa? No, kyllä sen kontekstista tajuaa.

Luin Saarikosken suomennoksen Matteuksen evankeliumista. Pidin. Pidin paljon.