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…if you’re alone nothing bad can happen to you.

Bret Easton Ellis

It’s like my characters, all my men are Dad and me in a mess; all my female characters are smart and hopeful, like Mom just trying to make the best of things.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Character Dad Female Mom Smart
I’ve never written an autobiographical novel in my life. I’ve never touched upon my life. I’ve never written a single scene that I can say took place.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Novel Scene Touched
When I’m writing a book, I’m not thinking, “Oh, this would be a great movie.” This would be a very interesting book. And I think the books are things that cannot really be adapted into another medium.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Book Great Interesting Medium Movie
I think in life, there are certain choices you make that are timeless and universal, and don’t necessarily have anything to do with the particulars of a certain decade.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Choices Decade Necessarily Thinking Timeless
He was simply someone who floated through our lives and didn’t seem to care how flatly he perceived everyone or that he’d shared our secret failures with the world, showcasing the youthful indifference, the gleaming nihilism, glamorizing the horror of it all.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Nihilism Secret World
And it struck me then, that I liked Sean because he looked, well, slutty. A boy who had been around. A boy who couldn’t remember if he was Catholic or not.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Boy Boys Catholic Sex
So what do I do? Toss a handful of change into the tank when none of the zookeepers are watching. It’s not the seals I hate——it’s the audience’s enjoyment of them that bothers me.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Animal Audience Enjoyment Watch Zookeeper
I’m not a big believer in disciplined writers. What does discipline mean? The writer who forces himself to sit down and write for seven hours every day might be wasting those seven hours if he’s not in the mood and doesn’t feel the juice. I don’t think discipline equals creativity.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Creativity Mean Writing
I tried to make meat loaf out of the girl but it becomes too frustrating a task and instead I spend the afternoon smearing her meat all over the walls, chewing on strips of skin I ripped from her body
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Frustrating Girl Over Skins Wall
Writing a novel that works is an extremely difficult thing to do. It requires a level of skill and dedication that always surprises me.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Dedication Skills Writing
With “Taipei” Tao Lin becomes the most interesting prose stylist of his generation…
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Generations Interesting Stylist
I like the idea of a writer being haunted by his own creation, especially if the writer resents the way the character defines him.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Character Ideas Way
On the seals’ tank a plaque warns: COINS CAN KILL–IF SWALLOWED, COINS CAN LODGE IN AN ANIMAL’S STOMACH AND CAUSE ULCERS, INFECTIONS AND DEATH. DO NOT THROW COINS IN THE POOL.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Death Handful Stomach Through Zookeepers
I don’t really need to pretend, because it’s who I am, an emotional vampire. I’ve just come to expect it. Vampires are real. That I was born this way. That I feed off of other people’s real emotions. Search for this night’s prey. Who will it be?
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Emotional Except Motion People Real Vampire
It’s as if her mind is having a hard time communicating with her mouth, as if she is searching for a rational analysis of who I am, which is, of course, an impossibility: there… is… no… key.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Analysis Communicating Key Mind Rational
You don’t market-research a novel; you really are writing it for yourself. It’s a hobby, in many ways. The problem becomes what you do when you’re confronted by criticism. You just don’t listen to it.
BRET EASTON ELLIS

Criticism Hobbies Writing

…if you’re alone nothing bad can happen to you.

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…if you’re alone nothing bad can happen to you.

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