TC Boyle [writer]

By: Julian Chavez | August 21, 2009 | Ten by Ten

T.C. Boyle is the author of 20 fiction books including After the Plague (2001), Drop City (2003), The Inner Circle (2004), Tooth and Claw (2005), Talk Talk (2006) and The Women (2009). He is a distinguished professor of English at USC, and he currently lives near Santa Barbara with his wife and three children.

What is the most important lesson you’ve ever learned?
From the shining example of my teacher at Iowa, John Cheever, I learned not to drink gin in the morning.
What book that you’ve read made a powerful impression on you?
Thousands of them. I’ll pick one. Laurie Garrett’s The Coming Plague, which I read in the late ’90s while preparing my ecological novel, A Friend of the Earth. Ms. Garrett’s fluid science writing lets us all know just how bad it’s going to be when one or more of the bacteria, viruses or parasites mutates up the food chain.

Describe your average Sunday morning.
My average Sunday morning is exactly like my average any-day morning. I get up, clean up the kitchen, read through the L.A. Times and Santa Barbara News Press with obsessive attention while munching a bagel. And then, when I can’t possibly put it off any longer without committing suicide, I go to work.

What individual was most influential during your formative years and how?
John Coltrane. I played saxophone and Coltrane was the first light in the firmament. I never understood what art was until I heard him.

What is your take on the current economic crisis?
Bush and his little mafia just can’t let go until our pockets are empty.

What are your thoughts on the overall importance of art in modern society?
Art is supreme. Sans God (gods), there is nothing else — absolutely nothing but the naked howling universe and us.

What advice would you give someone who wanted to follow your career path?
Come from a very wealthy family.

How do you decompress after a hard day’s work?
I dig holes in the back yard and then fill them up again. Then I chug a gallon of wine — sometimes white, sometimes red — according to my mood.

Describe your most vivid dream or a recurring dream.
While napping each morning in the middle of work, I dream that I am working and feeling very, very tired and in desperate need of a nap.

How do you define success?
To make it through this channel of horrors we call life with your limbs still attached and in the company of the people (and dogs), you most need and love.

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