One of the problems I have with many writers is their stories are all somewhat similar. They might be very good, but they're always on the same turf. I don't have those limitations.
T.C. BoyleI have an idea and a first line -- and that suggests the rest of it. I have little concept of what Iโm going to say, or where itโs going. I have some idea of how long itโs going to be -- but not what will happen or what the themes will be. Thatโs the intrigue of doing it -- itโs a process of discovery. You get to discover what youโre going to say and what itโs going to mean.
T.C. BoyleI'm just having fun making jokes and writing books. But you see me once a year, I come on when I have a new book out, but basically, I've got my nose to the grindstone and I'm doing what I'm supposed to do in life, which is make stories.
T.C. BoyleI love satire. Evelyn Waugh is one of my favorite writers of all time. He's hilarious. He's so wicked. He's so great. On the other hand, pure satire is an imitation. It doesn't really have any heart. It only holds things up to ridicule.
T.C. BoyleI have very rarely written autobiographical stuff. "Greasy Lake" and some other works have some autobiographical elements, as does "Birnam Wood," the one I chose to end [this collection] with. I lived in that house and some of my feelings are expressed in it, but it's not autobiography. It was not me and that didn't happen exactly that way.
T.C. Boyle