Literary Rogues (39 page)

23: THE TOXIC TWINS

213
processed by the hype machine
: Susan Squire, “Zeroing in on Bret Easton Ellis: Embraced by N.Y. Literati for His First Novel, the Young L.A. Author Ponders an Encore,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 29, 1986.

214
in
1980, it became clear
: Jay McInerney, “Yuppies in Eden,”
New York
, September 28, 2008.

214
enthusiastically tried cocaine
: Carol Sklenicka,
Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009), p. 364.

214
a bull's-eye into yuppie
: Scott Thomas, “The Bright Light of Jay McInerney,”
Sun-Sentinel
, September 21, 1986.

215
Catcher in the Rye
for the MBA set
: Susan Reed, “Leaving Cocaine and Discos Behind,
Bright Lights
Author Jay McInerney Turns to Samurai and Sushi,”
People
, October 14, 1985.

215
dusted with cocaine
: Ibid.

215
I suddenly invented cocaine
: Kurt Soller, “Bright Lights, Different City,”
Daily Beast
, October 14, 2009, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/10/14/bright-lights-different-city.html (retrieved July 2, 2012).

216
clergymen, lawyers
: Mark Pendergrast,
For God, Country and Coca-Cola
(New York: Basic Books, 2000), p. 24.

216
I was competing against my books
: Soller, “Bright Lights, Different City.”

216
married a string
: William Skidelsky, “Jay McInerney: ‘I Was Fortunate to Get a Lot of Mileage Out of My Vices,'”
The Guardian
, May 19, 2012.

216
One of the hardest things
: Soller, “Bright Lights, Different City.”

216
writers as luminous madmen
: Jay McInerney, “Raymond Carver: A Still, Small Voice,”
New York Times
, August 6, 1989.

217
You had to survive
: Ibid.

217
the new Jay McInerney
: Squire, “Zeroing in on Bret Easton Ellis.”

217
It wasn't a documentary
:
This Is Not an Exit: The Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis
. Dir. Gerald Fox. First Run Features, 2000. Videocassette.

217
went club hopping with Ellis
: Richard Wang, “Bret Easton Ellis, 2001,”
Index Magazine
(2001), http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/bret_easton_ellis.shtml (retrieved July 2, 2012).

217
really small liberal arts
: Squire, “Zeroing in on Bret Easton Ellis.”

218
toxic twins
: Bret Easton Ellis,
Lunar Park
(New York: Random House, 2006), p. 10.

218
chewed up by the time he's twenty-three
: Squire, “Zeroing in on Bret Easton Ellis.”

218
writing obituaries of the yuppie
: McInerney, “Yuppies in Eden.”

218
Not since Salman Rushdie
: Bob Sipchen, “Weighing the Merits of ‘American Psycho,'”
Los Angeles Times
, February 21, 1991.

219
about me at the time
: James Brown, “Patrick Bateman Was Me,”
Sabotage Times
, October 3, 2011, http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/patrick-bateman-was-me/(retrieved July 2, 2012).

219
Entertainment Weekly,
in 1991
: Roger Friedman, “Bret Speaks,”
Entertainment Weekly
, March 8, 1991.

220
This is not art
: Cohen, “Bret Easton Ellis Answers Critics.”

220
The writer may have enough talent
: Roger Cohen, “Bret Easton Ellis Answers Critics of ‘American Psycho,'”
New York Times
, March 6, 1991.

220
Bateman is a misogynist
: Ibid.

220
I was staying in the nicest hotel
: Ariel Adams, “Bret Easton Ellis Interview,”
Ask Men
(undated, presumably from 2010), http://www.askmen.com/celebs/interview_400/428_brett-easton-ellis-interview.html (retrieved July 2, 2012).

220
I had a really good run in New York
: Christopher Bollen, “Bret Easton Ellis,”
Interview
magazine (undated, presumably 2010), http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/bret-easton-ellis/#_ (retrieved July 2, 2012).

221
“
not interested” in drugs
: Brown, “Patrick Bateman Was Me.”

221
The party ends at a certain point
: Bollen, “Bret Easton Ellis.”

221
the symbol of hard, fast living
: Jay McInerney, “Bright Lights, Bad Reviews,”
Salon.com
(retrieved April 26, 2012), http://www1.salon.com/weekly/mcinerney2960527.html.

221
If I hadn't written
Bright Lights
: Scott Eyman, “Novelest Jay McInerney discusses wine and mentor Raymond Carver,”
Chicago Tribune
, January 24, 2007.

221
a spokesman for a generation
: Jay McInerney, “The Butterfly Crusher,”
The Guardian
, September 18, 2007.

222
wine and sex
: Skidelsky, “Jay McInerney: ‘I was fortunate.'”

222
Dick Clark of literature
: Joel Stein, “Books: A Man of His Time,”
Time
, September 28, 1998.

24: PROZAC NATION

223
The shortness of life
: Elizabeth Wurtzel,
Prozac Nation
(New York: Riverhead, 1994), p. 42.

223
I think there is no rebellion
: Torrey and Simonson, eds.,
Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson
, p. 55.

223
We were always in the shadow of
: Personal interview with Elizabeth Wurtzel, 2011.

224
When Nirvana started selling records
: Ibid.

225
There is a classic moment
: Wurtzel,
Prozac Nation
, p. 19.

225
Love it or hate it
: Gabi Sifre, “I Hate Myself and I Want to Die,”
Vice
(1994).

225
neurotic, smart, sexy, rich
: Peter Kurth, “‘More, Now, Again' by Elizabeth Wurtzel,” Salon.com, January 23, 2002.

226
The question of whether
: Personal interview with Elizabeth Wurtzel, 2011.

226
I don't know why they didn't care
: Ibid.

227
No one ever had the sense
: Elizabeth Wurtzel, “Beyond the Trouble, More Trouble,” NYMag.com, September 21, 2008.

227
Every recovered addict
: Elizabeth Wurtzel,
More, Now, Again
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 19.

227
full of enormous contradictions
: Karen Lehrman, “I Am Woman, Hear Me Whine,”
New York Times Book Review
, April 19, 1998.

227
When somebody close to you
: Personal interview with Elizabeth Wurtzel, 2011.

228
I don't remember whose idea it was
: Ibid.

228
It just seemed too narcissistic
: Ibid.

228
rampant egotism
: Toby Young, “Elizabeth Wurtzel Went Shopping ...,”
The Guardian
, March 2, 2002.

228
Her narcissism is so deep-seated
: Ibid.

228
Sorry, Elizabeth
: Peter Kurth, “‘More, Now, Again' by Elizabeth Wurtzel,” Salon.com, January 23, 2002.

229
habit of diseased introspection
:
The Atheneum
, December 17, 1859, p. 815.

229
Yesterday I was twenty
: Personal interview with Elizabeth Wurtzel, 2011.

229
Kitten, I'm going to kill you
: Ibid.

25: THE BAD BOY OF AMERICAN LETTERS

231
Writers used to be cool
: Personal interview with James Frey, 2011.

231
My grandmother's still alive
: Jessica Strawser, “Bestselling Author Nicholas Sparks Explains the Creative Process,”
Writer's Digest
(February 2011).

231
you don't see many radical books
: Suzanne Mozes, “James Frey's Fiction Factory,” NYMag.com, November 12, 2010.

232
You're the next one of us
: Personal interview with James Frey, 2011.

232
I am a literary bad boy
: Ibid.

232
the bad boy of American letters
: Ed Pilkington, “James Frey Forced to Defend Literary Ethics, Four Years After Oprah Attack,”
The Guardian
, November 21, 2010.

232
I realized that the books
: Open letter from James Frey to advance readers of
A Million Little Pieces
(undated, presumably from 2005).

232
You go to the airport
:
Larry King Live
, CNN, January 11, 2006.

233
When I wrote
Prozac Nation
: Personal interview with Elizabeth Wurtzel, 2011.

233
I think of this book more
: Evgenia Peretz, “James Frey's Morning After,”
Vanity Fair
, June 2008.

234
Fuck him
: Joe Hagan, “Meet the New Staggering Genius,”
New York Observer
, January 23, 2006.

234
FTBSITTTD
: Personal interview with James Frey, 2012.

234
Oprah Winfrey's been had
:
The Smoking Gun
, January 8, 2006.

235
There is no truth
: Gustave Flaubert,
Salammmbô
, Vol. 1 (New York: M. Walter Dunne), p. x.

235
subjective retelling of events
:
Larry King Live
, CNN, January 11, 2006.

235
“citations” and “traffic violations”
:
The Smoking Gun
, January 8, 2006.

236
You have so far exceeded
: Stephanie Merritt, “This Much I Know,”
The Guardian
, September 14, 2008.

236
Are you really as bad as you are
:
Oprah
, January 26, 2006.

236
If someday you choose
:
The Colbert Report
, January 30, 2006.

237
tougher and more daring
: Edward Wyatt, “Frey Says Falsehoods Improved His Tale,”
New York Times
, February 2, 2006.

237
The French revere people
: Personal interview with James Frey, 2011.

238
It was a nice surprise
: Evgenia Peretz, “James Frey Gets a Bright, Shiny Apology from Oprah,” VanityFair.com, May 11, 2009.

238
So, you're the guy that caused
: Peretz, “James Frey's Morning After.”

238
To produce the next
Twilight
: Mozes, “James Frey's Fiction Factory.”

239
make me out to be a villain
: Pilkington, “James Frey Forced to Defend.”

239
I'm there every day
: E-mail from James Frey.

239
these umbrella peddlers
: Jay McInerney,
Bright Lights, Big City
(New York: Vintage Books, 1984).

240
Not quite what you were expecting
: Personal interview with James Frey, 2011.

241
Did you read the
Esquire
piece
: Ibid.

241
a tiny man in his head
: Laura Miller, “James Frey Does Jesus,” Salon.com, March 16, 2011.

241
I always wanted to be the outlaw
: Decca Aitkenhead, “James Frey: ‘I Always Wanted to Be the Outlaw,'”
The Guardian
, April 18, 2011.

241
They won't blink in the face
: Personal interview with James Frey, 2011.

242
what a naughty, naughty boy
: Comments section, “James Frey: ‘I Always Wanted to Be the Outlaw,'”
The Guardian
, April 18, 2011.

242
fine with my life
: http://www.james-frey.com/james-frey/q-and-a/(retrieved June 21, 2012).

242
Be willing to misbehave
: Personal interview with James Frey, 2011.

POSTSCRIPT: WHERE HAVE ALL THE COWBOYS GONE?

243
Today's writers seem
: Anne Roiphe, “Why Alpha Male Writers Became Extinct,”
Wall Street Journal
, February 24, 2011.

243
the “good old times”
: George Gordon Byron,
Works of Lord Byron
, Vol. 8 (London: John Murray, 1873), p. 265.

244
My addictions and problems
: Open letter from James Frey to advance readers of
A Million Little Pieces
.

245
to paraphrase Joyce Carol Oates
: Kay Redfield Jamison,
Touched with Fire
(New York: Free Press, 1993), p. 49; the actual quote is, “[Emily Dickinson] was not an alcoholic, she was not abusive, she was not neurotic, she did not commit suicide. Neurotic people or alcoholics ... make better copy, and people talk about them, tell anecdotes about them. The quiet people just do their work.”