George Pelecanos

I don't judge anyone of any stripe by what they read. Reading is always good for you. It's a positive act.

I've just been very interested in the living side of Washington, rather than the federal side, since I was a kid.

I never went to school for writing, never took a writing class, but when you're in a room with David Simon and Ed Burns and Dennis Lehane and Richard Price, and they're going over something you've written, you learn what works and what doesn't.

I find 'True Grit' to be one of the very best American novels: It is a rousing adventure story and deeply perceptive about the makeup of the American character.

In its rather clinical view of death, 'True Grit' rivals the hardboiled world of 'Red Harvest'-era Dashiell Hammett and prefigures Cormac McCarthy by 20 years.

True Grit' is one of the few books my sons let me read to them - and paid attention to - when they were younger.

I go to church for the cultural element. It's where you go to see Greek people once a week. It's real important to me, and I hope my children see they're part of something bigger than just this family.

I'm more apt to shed a tear than my wife about family matters.

My take on gentrification and change is it's usually always a better thing, because when you see all these businesses open and flourishing, that means there are more jobs.

I've seen firsthand how books can change people's lives. It happened to me.

As far as I'm concerned, the voices of Washington, black Washington, it's poetry, man. There's beauty in it.

I really feel like people who want to change things need to go out and change it themselves and not look to politicians to do that.