Bezzerides, Faulkner, and Mysteries

I'm writing an introduction for the reissue of a couple of novels by the great AI Bezzerides and came across an interesting anecdote. In the early forties, he was the closest Hollywood friend of William Faulkner, who was slumming it at Warner Brothers for drinking money. After Faulkner left Hollywood, the two men rarely saw each other again, but Bezzerides did go spend a few weeks with Faulkner down in Mississippi in the early 50s. And with that set up, I'll let Bezzerides take it away:

"I remember one day walking with Faulkner over to the drugstore, where he was going to exchange a stack of mystery novels for a new stack. I asked him, 'Why do you read all these damn mysteries?' And he said, 'Bud, no matter what you write, it's a mystery of one kind or another.'"