Sure, there are the amazing short stories--"Bullet in the Brain" being my latest favorite, and then there are the novels--I have a signed copy of Old School--and then there are the memoirs--This Boy's Life was one of two books (the other being Stop-Time) that made me want to be a writer.
Of course I really like Tobias Wolff's writing or anything (who doesn't); but I admire him more and more as I read the amazing things he has to say about writing, and life.
To wit:
"When somebody's telling me a story, and I can feel them hit the rhythm of it, I don't hold them to every nickel and dime. If they say fifty thousand dollars, I don't think fifty thousand dollars, I think a lot of money."
"Most of us operate on the unacknowledged assumption that we are the only real human beings in the world and the only ones who matter. Stories have the power, I think, to suddenly fill us with the knowledge of other lives and with the importance of those lives to the people who lead them. And, in that way, yes, I write to change people. But I don't mean by changing them that I can bring them around to my point of view."
"We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are."
That last one kicks me down. Of course, my high-falutin senior yearbook quote was Seneca: "A man struggling against adversity is a spectacle for the gods."
Toby's way of saying it is much better.
Oh, by the way, he's coming to Denver. On 9/15. (And yes, this is a shameless plug.)
--MJH
