The professorial dictum has always been to write what you know, but I say write what you don't know and find something… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
I don't know who they are[my characters] . They're entirely invented characters. Maybe that's how I've been able to write so many… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
The hardest part is always the middle of anything because at that point, on some unconscious level, you have to figure out… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
Especially students. I love to turn them on to a story. Some of them have to go see me as an assignment,… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
I don't think we need a critic to negotiate with the audience. People say, "Who are you writing for?" I'm writing for… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
I think if you read all my books you know where I stand, pretty much. You could probably give the reader a… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
When you're in the midst of writing, it's a beautiful thing happening through you. Many people have said that it's not you,… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
Everything we do is escapism, because we'll all be dead and everything we do is completely meaningless. Why brush your teeth? Why not be… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
The hardest thing in a novel is time. You've got [a line like] "two weeks later, he woke up with a headache," and you've… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
Writing is a channeling of an individual experience; so is reading. That's what's so exciting about this art form - it's interactive. — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
I'm pretty hardcore. I stick exactly to what I'm doing. So I write a novel in one period, and then I'll write stories in… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
Work saved me. Literature saved me. It sounds corny but it's absolutely true. I was going in the wrong direction, but after the 9,000th… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
There are always surprises. Life may be inveterately grim and the surprises disproportionately unpleasant, but it would be hardly worth living if there were… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
“Besides, to like something, to really like it and come out and say so, is taking a terrible risk. I mean, what if I'm… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
“I am concerned with social and environmental issues. What rational person is not? But advocacy and art do not mix. Art is a seduction.… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
Pleasure, I remind myself, is inseparable from its lawfully wedded mate, pain. — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
A glad zest and hopefulness might be inspired even in the most jaded and ennui-cursed, were there in our homes such simple, truthful natures… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
What I'm doing is exploring things. This is why I'm a fiction writer rather than an essayist or a politician or whatever. I just… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
“Who was she in high school? Little Miss Nobody. She could have embroidered it on her sweaters, tattooed it across her forehead. And in… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
![“I don't know who they are[my characters] . They're entirely invented characters. Maybe that's how I've been able to write so many books, because there are no boundaries for me. I can write a completely fantastical story like "Swept Away" or "Blinded by the Light" and then a non-comic drama like…” quote by T.C. Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/ead/t-c-boyle-8108_able_i-don-t-know-who-they-are-my-characters_1148719.jpg)
![“When 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.” quote by T.C. Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/bf4/t-c-boyle-8108_beautiful_when-you-re-in-the-midst-of-writing-it-s_2970972.jpg)
![“The hardest thing in a novel is time. You've got [a line like] "two weeks later, he woke up with a headache," and you've got to add up that entire two weeks and what the date is and whether it works. That kind of stuff drives me crazy and if I don't have it exactly right, I can't move forward…” quote by T.C. Boyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e6e/t-c-boyle-8108_add_the-hardest-thing-in-a-novel-is-time-you_81637.jpg)
