Cat
asked
T. Coraghessan Boyle:
Mental illness is a very complex thing to write about. How did you prepare to write about a character with schizophrenia for The Harder They Come?
T. Coraghessan Boyle
Wrote an essay last spring for Buzzfeed on this very subject, called "The Dark Times." Check it out. In short: two of my closest friends when I was a boy, teenager (and into my twenties) were schizophrenic. I loved them. And watched them fade into their delusions.
More Answered Questions
Michael
asked
T. Coraghessan Boyle:
After reading your latest story in the New Yorker, 'The End Is Only a Beginning', I can't help but feel it is a semi-autobiographical tale. In any case, do you feel like sometimes you need to 'get it all out on the page' in order to exorcise some lingering feelings that have not yet been addressed? I know it's that way for me. Hope this is not too personal a question. Thanks.
Nguinther
asked
T. Coraghessan Boyle:
I have read at least eight of your novels and enjoyed them all. They are wonderfully descriptive and draw me into each scene "as if" I'm watching the flawed lives you've created from only a few feet away. Maybe it's how you use comparisons. Is there a reason why you use the phrase "as if" over and over on so many pages in this latest novel, THTC?
Lindsey Feldman
asked
T. Coraghessan Boyle:
Hi! The first book of yours I read was Drop City, which I found in a sale bin in NYC. Serendipity. Since then I've read pretty much all your other works. I'm an anthropologist and I love your ability to show me something truly human in all you write. My question is, how do you balance cynicism with hope when you write and think of characters? Or do you think those are even opposing categories? Thank you!
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