Bret Easton Ellis Quotes & Sayings

The real Julian Wells didn't die in a cherry-red convertible, overdosing on a highway in Joshua Tree while a choir soared over the sound track. — Bret Easton Ellis

There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there. — Bret Easton Ellis

A curtain of stars, miles of them, are scattered, glowing, across the sky and their multitude humbles me, which I have a hard time tolerating. She shrugs and nods after I say something about forms of anxiety. It's as if her mind is having a hard time communicating with her mouth, as if she is searching for a rational analysis of who I am, which is, of course, an impossibility: there ... is ... no ... key. — Bret Easton Ellis

Do you wear a diaphragm everywhere you go?' I want to scream, but stop myself because the idea really excites me. — Bret Easton Ellis

I learned that you really don't have any control as a writer. Waah, waah, waah. Big deal. Unless you're the director on the movie, or putting up the money for the movie, you really don't have a lot of control. As someone who's just writing scripts, you just kind of have to shrug. I have no problems or issues with screenwriting in general. It is what it is. — Bret Easton Ellis

I passed what I thought was a Halloween parade, which was disorienting since I was fairly sure this was May. When I stopped on the corner of Sixteenth Street and made a closer inspection it turned out to be something called a "Gay Pride Parade," which made my stomach turn. — Bret Easton Ellis

How can I tell McDermott that this is a very disjointed time of my life and that I notice the walls have been painted a bright, almost painful white and under the glare of the fluorescent lights they seem to pulse and glow. — Bret Easton Ellis

I have a lunch meeting with Cliff Huxtable at The Four Seasons in twenty minutes anyway," I lie, standing up. "I have to go too. — Bret Easton Ellis

I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip. — Bret Easton Ellis

People can get accustomed to anything, right? Habit does things to people. — Bret Easton Ellis

Baby, Andy once said that beauty is a sign of intelligence.'
She turns slowly to look at me. 'Who, Victor? Who? Andy who?' She coughs, blowing her nose. 'Andy Kaufman? Andy Griffith? Who in the hell told you this? Andy Rooney?'
'Warhol,' I say softly, hurt. 'Baby ... — Bret Easton Ellis

Things
changing, failing apart, fading, another year, a few more
moves, a hard person who doesn't give a fuck, a boredom so
monumental it humbles, arrangements so fleeting made by
people you don't even know that it requires you to lose any
sense of reality you might have once acquired, expectations
so unreasonable you become superstitious about ever
matching them. — Bret Easton Ellis

What does that mean know me, know me, nobody ever knows anybody else, ever! You will never know me. — Bret Easton Ellis

I laugh maniacally, then take a deep breath and touch my chest- expecting a heart to be thumping quickly, impatiently, but there's nothing there, not even a beat. — Bret Easton Ellis

I didn't know. All I know was that the sex was terrific. And that the hippie was cute. She loved sweet pickles. She liked the name Willie. She even liked Apocalypse Now. She was not a vegeterian. These were all on the plus side. But, once I introduced her to my friends, at the time, and they were all stuck-up asshole Lit majors and they made fun of her and she understoond what was going on and her eyes, usually blue, too blue, vacant, were sad. And I protected her. I took her away from them. ('Spell Pynchon,' they asked her, cracking up.) And she introduced me to her friends. And we ended up sitting on some Japanese pillows in her room and we all smoked some pot and this little hippie girl with a wreath on her head, looked at me as I held her and said, The world blows my mind'. And you know what?
I fucked her anyway. — Bret Easton Ellis

And," Price adds, smiling, "if another round of Bellinis comes within a twenty-foot radius of our table we are going to set the maitre d' on fire. So you know, warn him. — Bret Easton Ellis

The office Halloween party was at the Royalton last week and I went as a mass murderer, complete with a sign painted on my back that read MASS MURDERER (which was decidedly lighter than the sandwich board I had constructed earlier that day that read DRILLER KILLER), and beneath those two words I had written in blood Yep, that's me and the suit was also covered with blood, some of it fake, most of it real. In one fist I clenched a hank of Victoria Bell's hair, and pinned next to my boutonniere (a small white rose) was a finger bone I'd boiled the flesh off of. As elaborate as my costume was, Craig McDermott still managed to win first place in the competition. He came as Ivan Boesky, which I thought was unfair since a lot of people thought I'd gone as Michael Milken last year. The Patty Winters Show this morning was about Home Abortion Kits. — Bret Easton Ellis

I am gripped by an existential panic. — Bret Easton Ellis

It's the rare book that's able to transport you in a way that a movie does. — Bret Easton Ellis

Careless and not particularly biting, it was easier to shrug off than anything in the first book which depicted me as an inarticulate zombie confused by the irony of Randy Newman's I Love L.A. — Bret Easton Ellis

Writing fiction is an act of imagination and fantasizing, and it's not relating in prose what you've been doing for the last two or three years. — Bret Easton Ellis

When I flush the toilet in my bathroom, it becomes stopped up with Kleenex, and blood clouds the water and I put down the lid, because there's nothing else for me to do. — Bret Easton Ellis

And later my macabre joy sours and I'm weeping for myself, unable to find solace in any of this, crying out, sobbing, "I just want to be loved," cursing the earth and everything I have been taught: principles, distinctions, choices, morals, compromises, knowledge, unity, prayer - all of it was wrong, without any final purpose. — Bret Easton Ellis

If I want to write a movie, I'll write a screenplay, but if I have an idea for a book, it's something that I think can only be done novelistically. — Bret Easton Ellis

People are afraid to merge. — Bret Easton Ellis

Not being able to find meaning can be just as powerful as finding meaning, — Bret Easton Ellis

There was a song i heard when i was in los angeles by a local group. the song was called "los angeles" and the words and images were so harsh and bitter that the song would reverberate in my mind for days. the images, i later found out, were personal and no one i knew shared them. the images i had were of people being driven mad by living in the city. images of parents who were so hungry and unfulfilled that they ate their own children. images of people, teenagers my own age, looking up from the asphalt and being blinded by the sun. these images stayed with me even after i left the city. images so violent and malicious that they seemed to be my only point of reference for a long time afterwards. after i left. — Bret Easton Ellis

Scientists peered into data and concluded that we should all be worried.
-Lunar planet — Bret Easton Ellis

Exploitation is a harsh word, I know that, but on a certain level, to me that is the central Hollywood story. — Bret Easton Ellis

I think about other things while she describes her recent past: air, water, sky, time, a moment, a point somewhere when I wanted to show her everything beautiful in the world. — Bret Easton Ellis

And it struck me then, that I liked Sean because he looked, well, slutty. A boy who had been around. A boy who couldn't remember if he was Catholic or not. — Bret Easton Ellis

She sits before me, sullen but hopeful, characterless, about to dissolve into tears. I squeeze her hand back, moved, no, touched by her ignorance of evil. She has one more test to pass.
Do you own a briefcase? I ask her, swallowing. — Bret Easton Ellis

Lover? se asks, her voice reminding me of someone human. — Bret Easton Ellis

Is evil something you are? Or is it something you do? — Bret Easton Ellis

Disintegration---I'm taking it in stride. — Bret Easton Ellis

I say, staring at her, quite clearly but muffled by "Pump Up the Volume" and the crowd, "You are a fucking ugly bitch I want to stab to death and play around with your blood," but I'm smiling. I — Bret Easton Ellis

But this was what happened when you didn't want to visit and confront the past: the past starts visiting and confronting you. — Bret Easton Ellis

I kiss her on the mouth. She looks around nervously. I watch her reflection in the BMW.
"What's wrong?" I ask. "Not here", she says, but as if "not here" is the promise of somewhere better. — Bret Easton Ellis

I feel I'm moving toward as well as away from something, and anything is possible. — Bret Easton Ellis

You should never mistake affection for ... passion," I warn her. "It can be ... not good. It can ... get you into, well, trouble. — Bret Easton Ellis

I rerent Body Double because I want to watch it again tonight even though I know I won't have enough time to masturbate over the scene where the woman is getting drilled to death by a power drill since — Bret Easton Ellis

Disappear Here.
The syringe fills with blood.
You're a beautiful boy and that's all that matters.
Wonder if he's for sale.
People are afraid to merge. To merge. — Bret Easton Ellis

Life is full of endless possibilities. I tried valiantly not to choke on the beer nuts I was chewing while she gushed this kidney stone of wisdom, — Bret Easton Ellis

It's because you're always fighting sentiment. You're fighting sentimentality all of the time because being a mother alerts you in such a primal way. — Bret Easton Ellis

My mind reeling with the concept that a human being, a man, could feel pride over sodomizing another man, — Bret Easton Ellis

I hear it, can actually feel, can even make out the letters of the message hovering above Bono's head in orange wavy letters: I ... am ... the ... devil ... and I am ... just ... like ... you ... — Bret Easton Ellis

I've forgotten who I had lunch with earlier, and even more important, where. — Bret Easton Ellis

Will you call me before Christmas?' she asks.
Maybe.' I pull on my vest, wondering why I even came here in the first place.
You've still got my number, don't you?' She reaches for a pad and begins to write it down.
Yeah, Blair. I've got your number. I'll get in touch.'
I button up my jeans and turn to leave.
Clay?'
Yeah, Blair.'
If I don't see you before Christmas,' she stops. 'Have a good one.'
I look at her a moment. 'Hey, you too.'
She picks up the stuffed black cat and strokes its head.
I step out the door and start to close it.
Clay?' she whispers loudly.
I stop but don't turn around.'Yeah?'
Nothing. — Bret Easton Ellis

The snowy owl has eyes that look just like mine, especially when it widens them. And while I stand there, staring at it, lowering my sunglasses, something unspoken passes between me and the bird - there's this weird kind of tension, a bizarre pressure, that fuels the following, which starts, happens, ends, very quickly. — Bret Easton Ellis

You have neither the clout nor the experience to make a threat like that, Victor. — Bret Easton Ellis

I could stay living in this city if they just installed Blaupunkts in the cabs. — Bret Easton Ellis

But hey, she works in a video rental store and since it's such a demanding high-powered profession her bitchy behavior is completely reasonable, right? The — Bret Easton Ellis

I went to college in Vermont, and then stayed in the East Coast. — Bret Easton Ellis

This isn't a script," Julian says. "It's not going to add up. Not everything's going to come together in the third act. — Bret Easton Ellis

All it comes down to is this: I feel like shit but look great. — Bret Easton Ellis

ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisement for Les Miserables on its side blocking his view, but Price who is with Piece and Piece and twenty-six doesn't seem to care because he tells the driver he will give him five dollars to turn up the radio, "Be My Baby" on WYNN, and the driver, black, not American, does so. — Bret Easton Ellis

She laughs and looks out the window and I think for a minute that she's going to start to cry. I'm standing by the door and I look over at the Elvis Costello poster, at his eyes, watching her, watching us, and I try to get her away from it, so I tell her to come over here, sit down, and she thinks I want to hug her or something and she comes over to me and puts her arms around my back and says something like 'I think we've all lost some sort of feeling. — Bret Easton Ellis

But I don't want to wear a condom because I don't feel anything," and she says calmly ... glaring at me,"If you don't use one you're not going to feel anything anyway. — Bret Easton Ellis

The conversation follows its own rolling accord - no real structure or topic or internal logic or feeling; except, of course, for its own hidden, conspiratorial one. Just words, and like in a movie, but one that has been transcribed improperly, most of it overlaps. — Bret Easton Ellis

While walking back to the highway I stop, choke back a sob, my throat tightens. "I just want to..." Facing the skyline, through all the baby talk, I murmur, "keep the game going." As I stand, frozen in position, an old woman emerges behind a Threepenny Opera poster at a deserted bus stop and she's homeless and begging, hobbling over, her face covered with sores that look like bugs, holding out a shaking red hand. "Oh will you please go away?" I sigh. She tells me to get a haircut. — Bret Easton Ellis

I like the idea of a writer being haunted by his own creation, especially if the writer resents the way the character defines him. — Bret Easton Ellis

Did I ever tell you that I want to wear a big yellow smiley-face mask and then put on the CD version of Bobby McFerrin's 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' and then take a girl and a dog - a collie, a chow, a sharpei, it doesn't really matter - and then hook up this transfusion pump, this IV set, and switch their blood, you know, pump the dog's blood into the hardbody and vice versa, did I ever tell you this? — Bret Easton Ellis

A vast and abandoned world laid out in anonymous grids and quadrants, a view that confirmed you were much more alone than you thought you were, a view that inspired the flickering thoughts of suicide. — Bret Easton Ellis

There's no use in denying it: this has been a bad week. I've started drinking my own urine. — Bret Easton Ellis

This is laid down with a groove funkier and blacker than anything Prince of Michael Jackson
or any other black artist of the recent years for that matter
has come up with. — Bret Easton Ellis

God, the name Susan is so ugly. It reminds me of the word sinus. — Bret Easton Ellis

And later when we got into the car, he took a turn down a street that I was pretty sure was a dead end. "Where are we going?" I asked. "I don't know" he said "just driving". "But this road doesn't go anywhere" I told him. "That doesn't matter." "What does?" I asked, after a little while. "Just that we're on it, dude." He said. — Bret Easton Ellis

Adjust my dreams for me. — Bret Easton Ellis

...if you're alone nothing bad can happen to you. — Bret Easton Ellis

Don't tell me he was another serial killer, Bateman. Not another serial killer." "No, McDufus, he wasn't a serial killer, — Bret Easton Ellis

But ... what about us? What about the past?" she asks blankly.
"The past isn't real. it's just a dream," I say. "Don't mention the past. — Bret Easton Ellis

But the thing I remember most about the screening in October twenty years ago was the moment Julian grasped my hand that had gone numb on the armrest separating our seats. He did this because in the book Julian Wells lived but in the movie's new scenario he had to die. He had to be punished for all of his sins. That's what the movie demanded. (Later, as a screenwriter, I learned it's what all movies demanded.) When this scene occurred, in the last ten minutes, Julian looked at me in the darkness, stunned. "I died," he whispered. "They killed me off." I waited a bit before sighing, "But you're still here." Julian turned back to the screen and soon the movie ended, the credits rolling over the palm trees as I (improbably) take Blair back to my college while Roy Orbison wails a song about how life fades away. — Bret Easton Ellis

The Grinch says leave! — Bret Easton Ellis

I really believe that readers are smart and sophisticated enough to realize that the author is not the narrator of his novels. — Bret Easton Ellis

J&B I am thinking. Glass of J&B in my right hand I am thinking. Hand I am thinking. Charivari. Shirt from Charivari. Fusilli I am thinking. Jami Gertz I am thinking. I would like to fuck Jami Gertz I am thinking. Porsche 911. A sharpei I am thinking. I would like to own a sharpei. I am twenty-six years old I am thinking. I will be twenty-seven next year. A Valium. I would like a Valium. No, two Valium I am thinking. Cellular phone I am thinking. — Bret Easton Ellis

Why not?" she asks petulantly. "Give me one good reason we shouldn't." "Because trying to fuck you is like trying to French-kiss a very ... small and ... lively gerbil?" I tell her. "I don't know." "Yes?" she says. "And?" "With braces?" I finish, shrugging. — Bret Easton Ellis

She's simply another girl who has gotten by on her looks - her currency in this world - and it will not be fun to watch her grow old. — Bret Easton Ellis

The numbing lists of things you were supposed to have as an American to make you happy, which ultimately, of course, don't. Those aren't the things that make you happy. — Bret Easton Ellis

I stare into a thin, web-like crack above the urinal's handle and think to myself that if I were to disappear into that crack, say somehow miniaturize and slip into it, the odds are good that no one would notice I was gone. No ... one ... would ... care. In fact some, if they noticed my absence, might feel an odd, indefinable sense of relief. This is true: the world is better off with some people gone. Our lives are not all interconnected. That theory is crock. Some people truly do not need to be here. — Bret Easton Ellis

It's basically a joke."
"I think it's cool," Julian says. "It's all about control, right?" He considers something. "It's not a joke. You should take it seriously. I mean, you're also one of the producers
"
I cut him off. "Why have you been tracking this?"
"It's a big deal and
"
"Julian, it's a movie," I say. "Why have you been tracking this? It's just another movie."
"Maybe for you."
"What does that mean?"
"Maybe for others it's something else," Julian says. "Something more meaningful."
"I get where you're coming from, but there's a vampire in it. — Bret Easton Ellis

Danny is on my bed and depressed because Ricky was picked up by a break dancer at the Odyssey on the night of the Duran Duran look-alike contest and murdered. — Bret Easton Ellis

Sex is mathematics. Individuality no longer an issue. What does intelligence signify? Define reason. Desire - meaningless. Intellect is not a cure. Justice is dead. — Bret Easton Ellis

I think in life, there are certain choices you make that are timeless and universal, and don't necessarily have anything to do with the particulars of a certain decade. — Bret Easton Ellis

When you love a book it loves you back. — Bret Easton Ellis

I just sort of write the book I feel like writing given the emotional place I am in my life at the time. — Bret Easton Ellis

I think my sensibility is very literary; all my books were built as books, and I wasn't thinking about them being movies. — Bret Easton Ellis

And just as the table is about to finally ignore him, to look away and start eating, he sits up and loudly says, pointing an accusing finger at his plate, "It moved!" Timothy glares at him with a contempt so total that I can't fully equal it but I muster enough energy to come close. — Bret Easton Ellis

I wasn't acting on passion. I was simply acting. — Bret Easton Ellis

I don't know why I write what I write. — Bret Easton Ellis

Suddenly I'm seized by a minor anxiety attack. There are too many fucking movies to choose from. — Bret Easton Ellis

Life is like a typographical error: we're constantly writing and rewriting things over each other. — Bret Easton Ellis

The better you look, the more you see. — Bret Easton Ellis

It's a powerful statement and one that Whitney sings with a grandeur that approaches the sublime. Its universal message crosses all boundaries and instills one with the hope that it's not too late for us to better ourselves, to act kinder. Since it's impossible in the world we live in to empathize with others, we can always empathize with ourselves. It's an important message, crucial really, and it's beautifully stated in this album. — Bret Easton Ellis

No one will ever know anyone. We just have to deal with each other. You're not ever gonna know me. — Bret Easton Ellis

Haven't we outgrown all this tired irony? Weren't we supposed to give up acting twenty-two forever? — Bret Easton Ellis

No I'm not," I whisper to myself. "I'm a fucking evil psychopath. — Bret Easton Ellis

It was when she started dealing coke so she could lose weight. It had worked, sort of. I think she still has a fat ass, and can look dumpy, and has dried-out black hair and writes awful poetry and I'm pissed off that I let her get into that position of denying me. — Bret Easton Ellis

You seem happy.
I'm almost afraid of how happy I am. — Bret Easton Ellis

The fact that....you categorize everything as either sexist, or racist, or homophobic, whether it is or not, and therefore harmful to you and you just can't take it, is a kind of mania, a delusion, a psychosis that we have been coddling, encouraging people to think that life should be a smooth utopia built only for them and their fragile sensibility. — Bret Easton Ellis

This is reality, and as my loathsome brother Sean would say, I have to deal with it. The — Bret Easton Ellis