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" I think the way to be a writer is to experience things, certainly, and be open to things, but at some point to become dedicated to the craft of writing and to create a stable environment for that writing to occur in. "

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" Science has killed religion. There's no hope for the future with seven billion of us on the planet, and the only thing you can do is to laugh in the face of it all. "

T. C. Boyle

Hope

Science

Face

" In previous generations, there was purpose; you had to die, but there was God, and literature and culture would go on. Now, there is no God, and our species is imminently doomed, so there is no purpose. We get up, raise families, have bank accounts, fix our teeth and everything else. But really, there is utterly no purpose except to be alive. "

" What is your identity, and how do you know who you are if you don't have language? "

" I've never really been met with indifference, where they say, 'Who cares?' I think that's what good art is supposed to do. It's not supposed to make you feel good about your own prejudices and your own values; it's supposed to open you up in some way and get you outraged or make you happy or make you sad or whatever it's going to do. "

" It's true that none of my characters are admirable. But maybe I'm primarily a satirist, and a satirist needs to hold up what's not admirable. "

T. C. Boyle

Hold

Admirable

" I worry about everything in the world, and it's just too much for anybody to think about, so I have my art as my consolation. "

" I do not want to repeat myself. I want to reach for something I've never attained. This is the excitement of art. "

" This is the beauty of fiction. We may not like these characters, but we inhabit them. "

T. C. Boyle

Characters

Beauty

" I've always written about heroes and wondered who they are. "

" As humans, we all want our own island. Of course, the truth is, we're never going to get it. "

" I describe myself as an environmentalist not because I'm marching in the street with placards but because I like to be in the woods by myself. "

T. C. Boyle

Because

Myself

" I envy Jesus because he's dead. "

" I don't care if the audience is 600 Saul Bellows; I'm going to knock them dead with a comedy routine. I'm out there as a missionary for literature because, if people laugh and enjoy themselves, they might actually do something as bizarre as reading the book. "

" I am mad for nature writing. I want to get inside the head of every creature in the world, even ants. "

" I'm just kind of fascinated by how we can deny that we are animals and what our impact on the other animals is like, and how quixotic we can be in trying to assess what we've done in trying to correct it. "

" I can't read novels while I'm writing a novel, because somebody's voice creeps in. "

" Books are up against TV and movies and video games and a multimedia society that is so busy that people don't have contemplative time any more. I worry deeply about this. In fact, I worry about everything all the time. I used to be a punk. All I wanted to do was tear everything down, and that was so much easier. "

" One of the reasons I've been able to be productive is that I want to do everything. "

" What higher art does is to invite us in and allow us to make decisions. "

" I really like the power of stopping the laughter and turning it to horror. "

" You want, as an artist, to be pushing yourself to do what you haven't done before. "

" It's just my natural way - to be funny. I don't know why that is. But as I've said, humor is a quick cover for shock, horror, confusion. The critics hate funny writers for the most part. They think funny is not serious, but I think that funny can be even more serious than nonfunny. And it can be more affecting, too. "

" I think the best endings bring you back in rather than close things off with absolute finality. I'm not saying they necessarily have to be ambiguous, but we don't always need to know what happens when everyone wakes up tomorrow morning. "

" I think that's what art is about: to provoke you. It helps me make sense of a senseless universe because I become the god of the story. I create it, and I see it in all its lineaments in my own way and can control it - in a world in which everything else is out of control. "

" I can't fathom writers married to writers and musicians married to musicians. There's your enemy in bed beside you. "

" Life is tragic and absurd, and none of it has any purpose at all. "

" Sometimes if something is entertaining and amusing, people tend to think that it doesn't have the depth of something that's dramatic. I don't think that's true. "

" I hope to stay light on my feet, to work in many modes, to seek inspiration always, and avoid the fatal. But, as we all know, it is the price of life to burn out, both metaphorically and literally. "

" The novel is a seduction; a reader has to be seduced. "

" I never go anywhere without a book for fear of being stuck in line in front of the theater or strapped down in the dentist's chair and being bored witless. Thus, I read everywhere. "