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" 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. "

Related Quotes:

" 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

" 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

Hope

" 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. "

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

T. C. Boyle

Characters

Beauty

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

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

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

" The beauty of American law is you cannot slander anybody who is dead. This is not true in all countries. "

" Look at Sam Beckett. Most depressed man who ever lived, but he sure was funny. "

" This is why fiction is an art, and life is not - how much more affecting is the lie than the truth. "

" 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. "

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

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

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

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

" 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. "

" I tell jokes, and I have fun, but I tend to worry about everybody and everything throughout the entire world. "

" 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

Working

Own

" 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. "

" Every story is organic, and every story finds its own ending. "

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

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

" 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'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. "

" The compulsively readable events of my life occurred mainly in infancy, and it's been pretty humdrum ever since. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

" 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. "