Ellis declares himself done: a quarter-century after ‘less than zero’

Bret Easton Ellis, notoriously elusive, has finally offered a glimpse behind the curtain of his notoriously detached worldview. In a revealing interview with Vogue, the author of ‘Less Than Zero’ admitted he’s essentially stepped away from writing, a decision fueled by a profound exhaustion with the relentless demands of publicity and a startlingly frank assessment of his own work.

A decade of silence, a reluctant return

Ellis, 60, confessed he’d ceased actively exhibiting himself – writing, interviewing – roughly three years ago. “I just stopped two or three years back from…exhibiting myself,” he stated, a surprisingly blunt admission from a figure synonymous with provocation. He acknowledged a brief, almost defiant, willingness to break his self-imposed exile, offering to speak about ‘Less Than Zero’ “once or twice a year.”

The novel, a brutal and unsettling snapshot of 1980s Los Angeles youth culture, continues to exert a powerful pull, even on its creator. Ellis recounted a youthful, almost overwhelming, encounter with Joan Didion and Ernest Hemingway, experiences that shaped his early style and fueled his fascination with the city’s dark undercurrents. He described his early attempts at fiction as ‘stealing’ from these literary titans, creating diary-like narratives of LA’s disaffected youth – a precursor to the iconic ‘Less Than Zero’.

Despite the book’s monumental success—a bestseller upon release and catapulting Ellis to literary stardom at just 21—the author remains profoundly ambivalent about it. “Re-reading is just too painful,” he admitted. “There’s a point when the book is done: You’ve gotten to the end of the road. Let’s move on.” He cited the difficulty of confronting his younger self, riddled with insecurities about the novel’s reception and his own perceived shortcomings, as a deterrent.

Ellis’s reluctance to revisit his work is starkly contrasted with his recent engagement with contemporary literature, particularly his 2023 novel, ‘The Shards.’ The experience of reading it in Europe prompted further self-critique and a desire to avoid revisiting past traumas. ‘Less Than Zero,’ last read in 2008 during the writing of ‘Imperial Bedrooms,’ remained a potent reminder of his youthful ambition and the subsequent anxieties of achieving notoriety.

The interview revealed a surprising detail: Ellis’s writing began at age five, initially with children’s books and then comic books. His first novel, penned at 13, was a deliberate imitation of Hemingway and Didion, a practice he continued throughout his adolescence. It wasn’t until he discovered Hemingway’s stylistic power—the ability to convey complex emotions through sparse prose—that he truly found his voice. He emphasized the importance of cultivating a specific “numbness” in his writing, a deliberate avoidance of overt sentimentality.

Ellis’s approach to writing, he explained, was fundamentally driven by a desire to observe and satirize the world around him. “I really did try to follow a nine-to-five writing schedule that mirrored friends who had actual jobs,” he recalled, “I realized, Oh, everyone’s at work today. So I’m going to write and then I’ll see them later.” Reflecting on the initial reception of ‘Less Than Zero,’ Ellis dismissed the critical scrutiny, stating, “I don’t care what this writer thinks.” Despite the mixed reviews—half positive, half negative—and the pervasive speculation about the book’s themes and its connection to drug use, Ellis remained steadfast in his commitment to his artistic vision.

He concluded with a strikingly understated observation: