The Los Angeles Festival of Books: Bret Easton Ellis

My final panel of the weekend was seeing Bret Easton Ellis. Stolen bio from the program guide: Ellis is the author of 'Less Than Zero,' 'The Rules of Attraction,' 'American Psycho,' 'The Informers,' 'Glamorama,' 'Lunar Park' and his latest, 'Imperial Bedrooms.' his work has been translated into 27 languages. Ellis lives in Los Angeles.

Notes from the panel.

Why a sequel to 'Less Than Zero?' Interested in what was going on with Clay.
It was mentioned once that Clay was his most troubled character, he decided to re-track that statement.
Characters are not living in his head all the time.
Was not pleased that not a single line in the book was in the movie 'Less Than Zero.'
Excited to see the movie when he was young. He was nervous about how little of the book was in the movie.
As time has passed, he's become more fond of the movie.
Has his own images of how the characters look that don't match the actors that played them.
He was still in college when the movie was made.
Liked Elvis Costello a lot, influenced the title of the book.

His manager wanted him to drop his middle name, because it made him look pretentious. The manager also wanted him to call the book 'Winter Vacation.'
He isn't planning on making another sequel to 'Less than Zero' other than the current book 'Imperial Bedrooms.'

He likes 'Rules of Attraction' as the best adaptation of one of his books.
He believes 'Informers' is the weakest.

He wrote his first novel at the age of 14 about his summer. He thought he had an interesting summer. When he re-read it, he realized he didn't have an interesting summer.
He wrote the first draft of 'Less than Zero' in college.
He was not prepared for success.
The book was the lowest priority for the publisher, but somehow word of mouth made it a success.
Success framed how the public viewed him. It was a strange process to accept.

His publisher was upset by 'American Psycho.'
They wouldn't publish it.
Vintage came in to publish it. There was a new editor who was a friend. There were a lot of fights over it. He doesn't believe that it would have gotten a similar response today, because literary fiction isn't as important.

One can't confuse art with the artist.
Christian Bale showed up as Patrick Batman when they first met.
Likes books, not so much Kindle. Doesn't own a Kindle. Cheers from the young audience on that statement.

Comment I heard from the audience: "Not the largest crowd I've seen, but definitely the youngest crowd." I have to so agree with that.

My thoughts: Bret Easton Ellis came across as the most approachable writer, not only of this year's Festival but all the Festivals I've attended. He was also very humorous during the panel discussion. What was really cool was that there was a long line of fans hoping to get a signed book. An LA Times Festival of Books volunteer came out to those of us who were at the end of the line and said, "Mr. Ellis said he'd sign everyone's books." He signed books for about an hour.