James Ellroy Quotes

Yes, I’ve made a great deal of dough from my fiction, but I never set a single word down on paper with the thought of being paid for it...I have written because it fulfilled me. ... I did it for the pure joy of the things. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.

Sometimes you read a script, and you just think, 'Wow, I would love to go and tell that story, and I don't even care what happens to the film, I would just love that experience.' And often, that mentality makes a great film.

Writing wasn't about making money. I wanted to find fulfillment in writing and telling stories, and that's what's driven me.

The artist needs no religion beyond his work.

Everyone has different goals. For myself, I would rather take less roles and be working on films that I'm passionate about, that are going to challenge me, and that I'm going to be growing from. I don't ever want to take a movie just for the sake of working.

I want to die painting.

My aspirations aren't to sell millions of records, but to write really good songs.

I don't do this for the money, I don't do it for record sales, I don't really care about that, I just want to make beats.

I'll still try to nail acting jobs, but with 'Eastbound,' creating it is what gives me the ultimate pleasure at the end of the day.

The man of genius is he and he alone who finds such joy in his art that he will work at it come hell or high water.

I ask myself all the time, 'Why keep doing this?' If I wasn't exploring or finding something to write about that was personal or meant something, there'd be no reason. If I was ever making a record just to make a record, or ever just like, 'Just put something out there that someone will buy,' I would quit.

I love making music. That's what I love to do. So I don't feel like there's any need to take a break unless I want to.

Some people get turned on by my work, and it sells, but what drives me is the process of making it.

I enjoy the music I make because I have to - if I didn't, I wouldn't want to make it, and I wouldn't want it to be heard by other people.

I'm really hoping to find something that I feel as connected with as I did with 'The Florida Project.' I want to feel that passionate about things that I work on. I don't want to just act to act.

I'm not a fan of my own work. People ask why I do it, but it's because I actually love what I'm doing in the moment. I live for it. It's a release.

You have to put time into the art to do it, and you have to know that what you'll get out of it is not a financial or a fame thing. It'll just be the pleasure of being an artist. And I'm cool with that.

I love acting, but I'm not too crazy about money or fame. They don't drive me.

My passions drive me to the typewriter every day of my life, and they have driven me there since I was twelve. So I never have to worry about schedules. Some new thing is always exploding in me, and it schedules me, I don’t schedule it. It says: Get to the typewriter right now and finish this.

At the end of the day, it's nice to walk away from a set knowing that you're doing a movie that is not just for money and is not just pure entertainment.

We don't do it for the money... we do it for the music.

I meet a lot of young people that want to go into acting because they think of what it will do for them. If that's the case, it can be a very, very painful profession. But if the kids want to do acting because they love it, and they want to give to it, then they can have a great life. It's really about as simple as how you look at it.

Writing is its own reward.

The actual writing is what you live for. The rest is something you have to get through in order to arrive at the point.

I understand wanting to do your craft. I understand wanting to have a passion for your art and for your ability to be an actor, to be a singer, to be a dancer - that I understand. Wanting to be famous - I don't get that. But that's where we're living right now.