"I put on such a good show, the story is outrageous, and people don't want to hear that I'm basically a reasonable human being. As long as it continues to get me print, I'll continue to perform in an exuberant manner"
About this Quote
Ellroy is admitting the quiet part with a grin: the persona is the product. The “good show” isn’t an accident or a mask that slipped on over time; it’s a deliberate performance calibrated for maximum noise. Calling the story “outrageous” signals how he understands the media economy around literary celebrity: your work can be intricate, disciplined, even morally serious, but your public narrative needs to be blunt, vivid, and repeatable. Outrage travels. Reasonableness doesn’t.
The subtext is a double hustle. First, he flatters the audience’s appetite for spectacle while pretending to be trapped by it: “people don’t want to hear” I’m normal. Second, he absolves himself by framing exaggeration as transactional. If it “gets me print,” it’s justified; publicity becomes a kind of currency that can buy attention for the books and keep the Ellroy brand top-of-mind. He’s not confessing hypocrisy so much as marketing savvy.
Context matters: Ellroy’s career has long braided hardboiled noir with a carefully cultivated, jagged public presence - the barking, swaggering “Demon Dog” energy that turns interviews into mini-performances. In that light, “exuberant” is doing sly work. It reframes aggression as vitality, menace as charm. The line reads as both critique and complicity: he knows the culture prefers caricatures, and he’s willing to be one, so long as the spotlight stays on.
The subtext is a double hustle. First, he flatters the audience’s appetite for spectacle while pretending to be trapped by it: “people don’t want to hear” I’m normal. Second, he absolves himself by framing exaggeration as transactional. If it “gets me print,” it’s justified; publicity becomes a kind of currency that can buy attention for the books and keep the Ellroy brand top-of-mind. He’s not confessing hypocrisy so much as marketing savvy.
Context matters: Ellroy’s career has long braided hardboiled noir with a carefully cultivated, jagged public presence - the barking, swaggering “Demon Dog” energy that turns interviews into mini-performances. In that light, “exuberant” is doing sly work. It reframes aggression as vitality, menace as charm. The line reads as both critique and complicity: he knows the culture prefers caricatures, and he’s willing to be one, so long as the spotlight stays on.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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