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‘It’s the best book I’ve ever written,’ he says with his characteristic literary bravado. ‘It’s more wholesome, more accessible, more human and has more of my heart and soul than all of my other books combined. This book is much more tied to an actual historical event, both the internment camps and the first months of World War II. But I’m rewriting L.A. history to my own specifications. It’s like your dog — she’s always marking her turf, right? That’s what I’m doing. I’m pissing, leaving my mark. I’m creating a secret human infrastructure of big, public events.’

— title: “Days that Will Live in Infamy: PW Talks with James Ellroy” date: 2014-07-25T17:48:00.000Z published: true featured: false categories: [“Interview”] source: “Publishers Weekly” link_to_original: “http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/63436-days-that-will-live-in-infamy-pw-talks-with-james-ellroy.html" related_book: "” description: “Days that Will Live in Infamy: PW Talks with James Ellroy” description: “Days that Will Live in Infamy: PW Talks with James Ellroy”

Walkabout - James Ellroy from Ed Knigge on Vimeo.

_Interviewed by Nathaniel Rich at _The Paris Review__

Reading James Ellroy’s novels, it’s tempting to imagine the sixty-one-year-old author as a hyperactive, shotgun-toting, trash-talking connoisseur of crime, women, and American history, the kind of guy who pals around with homicide detectives and wears fedoras and bespoke suits. This portrait, as it turns out, is entirely accurate—except for the attire. These days he favors ivy caps and Hawaiian shirts.