matter – I love to see how it looks on the page. I do space and a
half because that is what it will look like in the book. It’s almost
like artwork to me. Each page, how it’s set up, and you don’t get
that on the Kindle. You can’t leaf through and all that is irritating
to me. Its advantage is that it is really small and you can take a lot
of stuff with you.
Otherwise, I’m reading the book.
You taught writing at USC for at least 37 years. Without getting
into too much detail, what has changed over that period? How has the
student body differed? What are the interests of today’s creative writing
students as opposed to the interests of students back in the 1970s, ‘80s,
‘90s, etc.?
USC, when I started, was kind of a second-rank place. If you
pay the money, we’ll let you in. But, it’s morphed into one of the
best universities in the country. It’s totally different now, but my
students have always been great because they’re artists. It doesn’t
matter what their scores are – of course their scores are much
higher now because it’s harder to get in – and that’s great, they’re
brilliant. But the ones I had at the beginning are equally brilliant
because we’re talking about a gift. Can you play that instrument?
Can you make that painting? Can you write that story?
No one, even when I was a beginning professor, ever told
me what I can and can’t do. I’m completely a free agent, and I do
exactly what I please and there have never been complications.
There have been some instances of disturbances in the classroom,
but nothing that I thought I couldn’t handle.
Do you winnow your students?
I started the writing program there. I was the only writer, so
I had everybody who came. You sign up, you’re in there. Then I
decided we should have a program, then we’d have an advanced
class, so then you have to submit a manuscript – and that’s the
way it has been. Now, I’m no longer teaching a class. I’m Writer In
Residence (for the past three years), which I designed for myself,
so I no longer have to drive down there as often.
Have you ever had to ask a student to drop out of your class?
No. Again, this is a workshop. It’s art; we’re talking about
art. Some have it and some don’t. I am not the judge of that. My
purpose is to be their mentor, their coach, to make each one as
good as he or she can be.
What is the value of taking a musical instrument in high
school? What is the value of learning painting? What is the value
of learning to write stories? You can see it from the inside and
you can appreciate that. Some students will go on to other fields,
a lot of them go into film; a lot of them are just non-specialized
degenerates holding creative signs out on the street begging for
change; some are famous writers.
You are a multi-PEN Award winner. What do you think of the
recent controversy surrounding awarding the staff of
Charlie Hebdo
an award, particularly that of a group of PEN members who objected
to giving that award?
I am one-hundred percent on the side of freedom of
expression, no matter what. If the Nazis can march in Skokie
(Illinois), we can make cartoons of Muhammad. Period. It’s a
crazy, radical, fundamentalism trying to distort our freedoms. And
they are not the first, of course, who’ve tried to distort and abridge
our freedoms.
It began for me with the Salman Rushdie flap. We were both
Viking authors. I had a book coming out three months later,
If The
River Was Whiskey
, so this was 1989, and in it, there is this story that
makes fun of the ayatollah. If you were to look at that story – it’s
called “Hard Sell” – you would see that it’s a satire and it’s really
making fun of the guy trying to change the ayatollah’s image. But,
explain that subtlety to the guy with the bomb outside the door.
So, for the first time in my life, and for the last time in
my life, thankfully, the press came after me in a way that was
uncomfortable. Viking was freaked out. They had bomb-sniffing
dogs; there were people who were killed over the Rushdie book.
So, my editor asked if I would drop that story from the book,
and I said no. Not because I wanted people bombing my house,
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