Joe Ide

Joe Ide (born c. 1958) is a Japanese American writer of crime fiction.

Quotes

 * I was this murky, fringe kid. I wasn't black, I wasn't white, and I'm way far from being Japanese…So I'm always on the edges, watching, listening, but not really in the mix.
 * On his upbringing in South Los Angeles in “Joe Ide: Creating A Complicated Hero From the Hood” in NPR (2017 Nov 10)


 * There are other ways an entertaining novel can contribute to the common good. Violence can be portrayed but not glorified. Vicious characters don’t have to be cool. Kindness and ethical behavior can be virtues instead of vulnerabilities. Intelligence can triumph over guns. Cruelty, misogyny, drug use, violence, sociopathic tendencies don’t have to be celebrated.
 * On how novels can be entertaining in “THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW WITH JOE IDE” in The Rumpus (2017 Mar 15)


 * I wanted to create a character who didn’t routinely resort to violence and wasn’t courageous by virtue of wielding a gun. I wanted to show someone who was powerful and incisive who could face down the bad guys without becoming a bad guy himself. I wanted a hero who was ethical, thoughtful, and just.
 * On his protagonist in IQ in “THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW WITH JOE IDE” in The Rumpus (2017 Mar 15)


 * Almost everyone, at one time or another, has been bullied, harassed, put down, hurt or suffered prejudice with no means of striking back. The vigilante gives us a vicarious way of getting justice. Of retaliating. Of getting revenge. The latter are perhaps not politically correct or realistically possible, but in our fantasies and in our fiction, they’re righteous, and satisfying…
 * On the trope of the vigilante in “THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW WITH JOE IDE” in The Rumpus (2017 Mar 15)