A biography for T. C. Boylehasn’t been written yet.
“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'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.”
“Sometimes, we find common ground; more often, we don't.”
“I really like the power of stopping the laughter and turning it to horror.”
“As humans, we all want our own island. Of course, the truth is, we're never going to get it.”
“The novel is a seduction; a reader has to be seduced.”
“I'm enslaved to writing to the point where I sacrifice almost everything else.”
“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 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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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'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 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.”
“One of the reasons I've been able to be productive is that I want to do everything.”
“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 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.”
“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.”
“This is why fiction is an art, and life is not - how much more affecting is the lie than the truth.”
“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.”