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.
Meaning of the quote
Writing can be a solitary activity, but too much focus on it can be harmful. James Ellroy, an American writer, explains that he enjoys being alone to write, but he doesn't want to become overly stressed and burn out before he reaches middle age. He recognizes that while writing is important to him, he needs to balance it with other aspects of his life to stay healthy and avoid becoming a 'stress casualty'.
About James Ellroy
James Ellroy is an acclaimed American crime fiction writer known for his terse, staccato prose style. He’s best known for his novels “The Black Dahlia” and “L.A. Confidential”, which have been widely praised for their gritty and atmospheric depictions of crime and corruption in mid-20th century Los Angeles.
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My mother and I will continue on some level that I haven’t determined yet. I think my mother’s a great character, and I have to say that giving my mother to the world has to be the biggest thrill of my writing career.
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I was a WASP kid going to a high school that was 99 percent Jewish and I wanted attention and I wanted to make a spectacle of myself because I couldn’t stand to be ignored.
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I’m clenched down, I’m locked in on it, which is my general approach to life.
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I haven’t been to a movie in a year and a half.
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I’ve been tremendously moved by a bunch of odd books. Ross McDonald is very important to me. I love the Lew Archer books.
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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.
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I would like to provoke ambiguous responses in my readers.
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I’m getting a wider circle of fans now. More women, more middle class people.
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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.
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When I was a kid, Eisenhower had been President forever, and all of a sudden, everything in the world was all about Jack Kennedy. I was 12, interested in politics; my father was from Massachusetts, had an accent like Kennedy.
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I am the most well-adjusted human being I know. I started out this investigation as a very happy man with a great career. I’ve got the life people dream about: I am rich, I am famous, I’ve got a fabulous marriage to an absolutely, spell-bindingly brilliant woman.
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I am conservative by temperament. I disapprove of criminal activity. I am very solidly and markedly on the side of authority. The truth is I would rather err on the side of too much authority than too little.
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The truth of the matter is, you lose a parent to murder when you’re 10 years old, and in fact at the time of the murder you hate your lost parent, my mother in my case.
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