By Claude Peck

Separating the monster ego from the self-deprecation, the truth from the shtick, became nearly impossible as crime novelist James Ellroy spoke Wednesday night at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. "I'm a genius," said Ellroy, 61, who is well over 6 feet tall and was gangster-prep natty in a gray chalkstripe suit, bowtie and pocket square. Here's a sampling of the quotable writer's hyper-non-self-effacing hour-long talk: "Beethoven has been called the German Ellroy." "I love strong, good-looking, left-wing women." "I don't read." "I like to lie in a dark room and brood about the same five or six things." "I was born to write big books that no one else would have the nuts to write." "I write books for the whole family, if the name of your family is the Mansons." Ellroy's new novel is "Blood's a Rover." His Talking Volumes talk with Kerri Miller will be rebroadcast on MPR's Midmorning show at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 12. See Ellroy reading in a Star Tribune video right about here. Read Neal Justin's profile of Ellroy over here. Read the Star Tribune's review of "Blood's a Rover" here.

James Ellroy at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul on Wednesday / Photo by Tom Campbell