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" Now that we all live in a bad '70s sci-fi movie, I am made to understand the tyranny of the machines every minute of every day. "
T. C. Boyle
Tyranny
Live
Day
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" Of course all novelists are egomaniacs and want to draw everyone to their fold just like any other preacher. The snake-oil peddler, the false prophet, all of this is fascinating to me. But I certainly hope that I'm more humane than that. "
T. C. Boyle
Me
Like
Hope
" I like to live in my own mind, regardless of everyone and everything, working out the intimate puzzles that are my stories and novels. "
T. C. Boyle
Like
Working
Own
" 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. "
T. C. Boyle
Down
Worry
Busy
" What higher art does is to invite us in and allow us to make decisions. "
T. C. Boyle
Make
Decisions
Art
" I'm not looking ahead joyfully to the rest of my life or the future of the human race. I've always written about man as an animal species among other animals, competing for limited resources. Our population is exploding. Our environment is dying. Science has debunked God. "
T. C. Boyle
God
Animal
Science
" I can't fathom writers married to writers and musicians married to musicians. There's your enemy in bed beside you. "
T. C. Boyle
Beside
Musicians
You
" I really like the power of stopping the laughter and turning it to horror. "
T. C. Boyle
Power
Really
Laughter
" It's hard to say how certain stories just punch us in the heart and the brain at the same time at the end. I suppose that's what we're all looking for. But each story has its own valence, its own way of saying goodbye to you. "
T. C. Boyle
Looking
Brain
Goodbye
" The compulsively readable events of my life occurred mainly in infancy, and it's been pretty humdrum ever since. "
T. C. Boyle
Events
Life
My Life
" Every story is organic, and every story finds its own ending. "
T. C. Boyle
Story
Own
Organic
" 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
Like
Myself
" I've always written about heroes and wondered who they are. "
T. C. Boyle
Heroes
Always
Who
" 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. "
T. C. Boyle
True
Think
Sometimes
" I think, if I'm doing my job correctly, I'm presenting a scenario for you as the reader to engage with on your own. I mean, that's what the best art is supposed to do. It's not supposed to be political. I think if you read all my books, you know where I stand, pretty much. "
T. C. Boyle
Stand
Political
Art
" I envy Jesus because he's dead. "
T. C. Boyle
Dead
Jesus
Because
" My job is to engage, entertain, work out my life, tell a certain truth. "
T. C. Boyle
My Life
Life
Job
" 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. "
T. C. Boyle
Know
Funny
Think
" I tell jokes, and I have fun, but I tend to worry about everybody and everything throughout the entire world. "
T. C. Boyle
Fun
World
Worry
" Life is tragic and absurd, and none of it has any purpose at all. "
T. C. Boyle
Life
Absurd
Any
" I can't read novels while I'm writing a novel, because somebody's voice creeps in. "
T. C. Boyle
Read
Somebody
Voice
" I read widely - for news, the arts, science, for entertainment, and the value of being informed - and, as a fiction writer, I can't help transposing what I learn into the scenario for a novel or story. "
T. C. Boyle
News
Value
Story
" 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. "
T. C. Boyle
Chair
Never
Fear
" What is your identity, and how do you know who you are if you don't have language? "
T. C. Boyle
Language
Identity
You
" 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. "
T. C. Boyle
Think
Good
Happy
" 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. "
T. C. Boyle
Kind
Impact
How
" I'm enslaved to writing to the point where I sacrifice almost everything else. "
T. C. Boyle
Everything
Point
Sacrifice
" This is why fiction is an art, and life is not - how much more affecting is the lie than the truth. "
T. C. Boyle
Why
Truth
Art
" Art saved me. It may sound corny, but it's true. "
T. C. Boyle
Me
True
Sound
" Look at Sam Beckett. Most depressed man who ever lived, but he sure was funny. "
T. C. Boyle
Look
Man
Most
" 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. "
T. C. Boyle
Laugh
Reading
Book