Perfidia Quotes

“1:52 a.m. His favorite nightcap—coffee and Benzedrine.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“They were heedless of the fact that they’d gain more converts if they just stopped talking.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“There's a beast in me. I destroy those I cannot control. I must be certain that those close to me share my identical interests. I'm benevolent within that construction. I'm ghastly outside of it.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“I indulge prayer when the world seems incomprehensible and only a plea to the incomprehensible makes sense.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“He felt sandbagged. Doomsday, Armageddon. Booze begets instant misconduct and regret. He walked to the couch and fell down.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“You’d be better served taxing your conscience for those who deserve your regret.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Breuning drove. Dudley sat up front Carlisle sat in back, with three sawed-off shotguns.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Dudley snatched Blanchard’s plate. “That lad shouting racial slurs may be offending Dr. Ashida. Please take him someplace secluded and kick the shit out of him.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“She's good to common folk. They make her feel authentic. She covets their approval in small doses.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“There is no proportion. Pearl Harbor took care of that.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“I loved men and was going mad with suppressed desire. It pushed me into a series of affairs with dubious jazz musicians. Sex was not what I imagined. It was tension, scent and prosaic misalliance. It was sweet and sad revelation, and all expectation dashed.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Lose thirty pounds within the next thirty days, or I’ll have Chief Horrall put you on the ‘Fat Husband’s Diet’ recently extolled in the Ladies’ Home Journal.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“All I have is withering perception. Women write diaries in the hope that their words will beckon fate.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Yes, my friends—it’s becoming Jewniversally apparent.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“The driver drove by roadway Braille”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Claire De Haven and the company cared for the plight of the world. Claire De Haven and the company extolled tyrants and
lived for adversarial cliché.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Claire dabbed her cheeks.
"It's very powerful to love someone that you shouldn't”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“It wasn't supposed to end this way. They were out to create a decorous courtroom document. They were out to destroy a barbarous ideology. They were supposed to exchange letters and call each other Katherine and William in due time.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Treason is ideology and free speech perverted. Seditious thought and its reckless public expression is a grave criminal offense that fully sanctions me in this action that you allege to be precipitous, presumptuous and subversive in and of itself, so help me fucking God, I know it to be true.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Cantwell said, “We’ll have to have Bill explain this new war to us, Dud. Father Coughlin lays the blame on the coons and the sheenie bankers, and I tend to agree with him.” Dudley said, “America and Ireland first, Your Eminence. You know where I stand on that.” Cantwell said, “Let’s get shit-faced drunk and defame that Jew shitheel in the White House. Franklin Double-Cross Rosenfeld, his name is.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“J. J. Cantwell said, “We’re three Catholic men relieved of our duties. We’re going to get shit-faced drunk and defame the Prottys and the kikes.” Parker ushered them in. His Eminence was sixty-six and rambunctious. Dudley doted on him. They met in Ireland, circa 1919. Dudley killed British soldiers. Cantwell funneled gun money.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“These tracts are inherently unradical and fail to critique the systematic bigotry that has fueled this counteraggression for the past two horrible days. This cravenly jingoistic display of yours is an insufficient response to the injustice currently being perpetrated on this very street.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“A key-in-lock noise jarred him. He walked into the living room. Mariko had 11:00 a.m. booze breath. He said, “Hello, Mother.” She spoke slurred Japanese back. He bowed and tried to take her hand. She pulled away and flashed a magazine. A “picture bride” rag. Choose a photograph and send for a young woman. She’ll be shipped from Japan. Include the five-hundred-dollar steamship fare. All brides guaranteed to be fertile and subservient. “I’ve told you, Mother. I’m not going to marry a fifteen-year-old girl out of a brothel.” “You too old to be bachelor. Neighbors get suspicious.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Envy thou not the oppressor, And choose none of his ways. —Proverbs 3:31”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Padre Divino, concedimi una tregua. Accetta la mia fraudolenta rettitudine. Revoca l'arroganza che mi lega agli intrighi di altri e mi conduce verso orridi errori e unioni sbagliate. Tempera la mia ambizione con la Tua grazia, Signore.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“Silver Shirts”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“bons mots”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia

“chippies.”
― James Ellroy, Perfidia