The Big Nowhere Quotes

“It all came down to money - the great equalizer and common denominator.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“Don't make a career out of underestimating me." — Claire de Haven”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“Call me Dudley. We're of equal rank. I'm older, but you're far better looking. I can tell we're going to be grand partners.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“Cliché shouters, sloganeers, fashion-conscious pseudoidealists. Locusts attacking social causes with the wrong information and bogus solutions, their one legit gripe--the Sleepy Lagoon case--almost blown through guilt by association: fellow travelers soliciting actual Party members for picketing and leaflet distribution, nearly discrediting everything the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee said and did. Hollywood writers and actors and hangers-on spouting cheap trauma, Pinko platitudes and guilt over raking in big money during the Depression, then penancing the bucks out to spurious leftist causes. People led to Lesnick's couch by their promiscuity and dipshit politics.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“Howard got sex-crazy in the winter and probably wanted to send him out on a poontang prowl: Schwab's Drugstore, the extra huts at Fox and Universal, Brownie snapshots of well-lunged girls naked from the waist up. His Majesty's yes or no, then standard gash contracts to the yes's--one-liners in RKO turkeys in exchange for room and board at Hughes Enterprises' fuck pads and frequent nighttime visits from The Man himself.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“He was about to pocket a list of local sanitariums when he heard "Traitor," and saw Mickey and Herman Gerstein standing a few feet away. Cohen with a clean shot, but a half dozen witnesses spoiling his chance. Buzz said, "I suppose this means my guard gig's kaput. Huh, Mick?" The man looked hurt as much as he looked mad. "Goyishe shitheel traitor. Cocksucker. Communist. How much money did I give you? How much money did I set up for you that you should do me like you did?" Buzz said, "Too much, Mick." "That is no smart answer, you fuck. You should beg. You should beg that I don't do you slow." "Would it help?" "No." "There you go, boss." Mickey said, "Herman, leave this room"; Gerstein exited. The typers kept typing and the clerks kept clerking. Buzz gave the little hump's cage a rattle. "No hard feelin's, huh?" Mickey said, "I will make you a deal, because when I say "deal," it is always to trust. Right?" "Trust" and "deal" were the man's bond-it was why he went with him instead of Siegel or Dragna. "Sure, Mick." "Send Audrey back to me and I will not hurt a hair on her head and I will not do you slow. Do you trust my word?" "Yes." "Do you trust I'll get you?" "You're the oddson favorite, boss." "Then be smart and do it." "No deal. Take care, Jewboy. I'll miss you. I really will.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“It was written that I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice—”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“The Latin inscription on the Pall Mall cigarette pack—“In Hoc Signo Vinces”—translated as “With this sign we shall conquer”—was a tentative means of homo identification”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“Twenty-nine years old and on her third masters degree because she’s afraid to go out and meet the world. Sad, isn’t it?” Mal sighed. “Tragic.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“He picked up his badge and handcuffs and held them to himself; he unholstered his .45 revolver and aimed it at the world.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“Informants must be both credible and coercible, as well as vulnerable to exposure of their own misdeeds.”
― James Ellroy, Widespread Panic

“The profusion of cherry lights, flashlights and headbeams darted over the lot, picking out details: mud puddles reflecting moonlight and shadows, the neon haze of Hollywood in the distance.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“I’m seventy and in baaaaad fucking shape. I’ve consumed scads of scotch and sucked three packs a day since I shot out the chute.”
― James Ellroy, Widespread Panic

“He cheats on his income tax.” Dudley ha! ha! ha!’d. “So do I, so does my friend Malcolm and so would our grand savior Jesus Christ should he return and settle in America.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“there is no end to the cancerous seeds of treason that well-placed movie Reds could plant—subtle satires and attacks on America, subliminally planted so that the public and right-thinking movie people would have no idea they were being brainwashed.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“Claire De Haven is a promiscuous woman, women like that are unbalanced,”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“Language liberates as it offends. Confidential taught me that.”
― James Ellroy, Widespread Panic

“The headwaiter told Mal that Mr. Loew and another gentleman were waiting for him in the Gold Rush Room—a private nook favored by the downtown legal crowd. Mal walked back and rapped on the door; it was opened a split second later, and the “other gentleman” stood there beaming. “Knock, knock, who’s there? Dudley Smith, so Reds beware. Please come in, Lieutenant. This is an auspicious assemblage of police brain power, and we should mark the occasion with proper amenities.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“The restaurant was packed with camera-toting tourists wolfing the “Rose Bowl Special”—hangtown fry, flapjacks, Bloody Marys and coffee.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“A Vollmer maxim hit home: “In murders of extreme passion, the killer will always betray his pathology. If the detective is willing to sort physical evidence objectively and then think subjectively from the killer’s viewpoint, he will often solve crimes that are baffling in their randomness.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“and they got a 459 thing going.”
― James Ellroy, Widespread Panic

“Thundershowers hit just before midnight, drowning out the horn honks and noisemaker blare that usually signalled New Year's on the Strip, bringing 1950 to the West Hollywood Substation in a wave of hot squeals with meat wagon backup.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere

“He said that only stupid men love danger, but you love danger and you’re not stupid.”
― James Ellroy, The Big Nowhere