Ten Things You Didn't Know About Bret Easton Ellis

1. He was a keyboardist in little-known eighties new-wave band, The Parents.

2. At 21 years old, Ellis was so overwhelmed by the success of his first novel Less Than Zero that he suffered a nervous breakdown.

3. When American Psycho was released in Australia, it was deemed so explicit that it was sold in shrink-wrap with an R18+ rating in accordance with censorship legislation.

4. Patrick Bateman, the central character in the novel, is partly based on Ellis’ father, with whom he had a difficult relationship.

5. All of the six novels he has written prior to his new book, Imperial Bedrooms, have been made into films.

6. In the semi-autobiographical Lunar Park, Ellis claims to have: crashed a Ferrari while driving naked in Southampton; been a dinner guest of George W. Bush at the White House; and dated both model Christy Turlington and musician George Michael. 

7. He is name-checked in the song ‘Obsessions’ by UK band Suede, and characters from his work are referred to in ‘Song for Clay (Disappear Here)’ by another UK band, Bloc Party.

8. He is a self-proclaimed ‘moralist’, although many critics have labelled him a ‘nihilist’.

9. Ellis has stated in interviews that he believes female filmmakers are inherently worse because they’re not capable of being ‘aroused by looking’.

10. He once attempted to write an animated kids’ movie for DreamWorks.

Bret Easton Ellis appears at Oxford Art Factory on Tue 10 Aug

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