Any story has a beginning, middle, and end, of course, but the question is, where do you start it exactly? It's about a guy who is murdered in a fistfight, but how does it evolve and what does it mean? That's what I discovered scene by scene, and this innovation of coming in as a first-person narrator was a complete surprise to me. It just happened.
T.C. BoyleI think if you read all my books you know where I stand, pretty much. You could probably give the reader a questionnaire and they could figure out what I'm about. But I don't think my job is to tell you that.
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. BoyleIf you focus on literature through only one small element of it, like the more scientific element of linguistics, then where is the joy that brought us literature in the first place, which is to have a story?
T.C. BoyleWhen you're in the midst of writing, it's a beautiful thing happening through you. Many people have said that it's not you, it's the soul of humankind and so on, I don't know. But it has the same effect [as music]. It takes you out of your body and out of this planet.
T.C. Boyle