I Learn Things Late-and Only The Hard

The 250-page Outline For American Tabloid. The Books Are So Dense. They're So Complex, You Cannot Write Like I Write Off The Top Of Your Head. It's The Combination Of That Meticulousness And The Power Of The Prose And, I Think, The Depth Of The Characterizations And The Risks That I've Taken With Language That Give The Books Their Clout. And That's Where I Get Pissed Off At A Lot Of My Younger Readers.

How Did I Change My Life? I Wanted Things. I Wanted Women And I Wanted To Write Books.

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.

I Think I'm Out Of Crime Fiction Now, And I Think The Dividing Line Is American Tabloid.

I Begin By Assembling Notes On Characters. Large Swaths Of The Plot Become Clear To Me As I Do This.