Work saved me. Literature saved me. It sounds corny but it's absolutely true. I was going in the wrong direction, but after… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
I have many enemies and they all think I'm being highfalutin calling it performance, but the word "reading" has a connotation of… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
I think it's a great thing to hear the author reading. I've listened to CDs of Cheever and Updike reading their stories… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
From my point of view, why shouldn't I work in every possible mode, to see if it's viable? "Los Gigantes" would not… — 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
Criticism can be wonderful, especially in making connections in an interpretive way. But by applying theories randomly, it's an interesting exercise, but… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
I've had many students over the years, sometimes even very sophisticated students, who will be writing and will hit a wall. Often… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
Work ethic and this determination is all part of escaping the depressive side. Of course I'm manic depressive, maybe not to the… — 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
I go around with my books so much and I love to perform on stage, to remind everybody that the lights are… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
I'm a product of state schools. I had a working-class family. We had no books. I was the first to go to… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
You don't write the kitchen scene just because you're eager to do it that day and you're avoiding something else. I think… — T.C. Boyle Copy Share Image
Music is, by far, the best art. Nothing even comes close. It's so immediate and emotional. In writing, maybe ninety percent of… — 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
