Paint It Black is generously peppered with 1980s punk rock music, as well as references to the visual arts and classical music. How important is the role of art and music in your life? And how do you think that's expressed in your novels?
I'm deeply stimulated by seeing the ways other people's creative impulses manifest in the world. Not that I necessarily intend to be influenced by them formally or stylistically, but I seek out the way it excites me and heats things up internally.
My creativity responds to another's the way one string of a guitar vibrates an unplucked string next to it. I think most people seek out art for this experience, not just artists. We're fed by all the arts.
Specifically, in my work, music and visual arts are a way in which I can think about my own art form without writing about it. How artists relate to their art.
In Paint It Black, punk rock and classical music contrast two distinct attitudes towards creativity that I clearly move between-an attitude of permission and a reverence for mastery. Awareness of what has been done, of the level of genius the world has already produced, and holding oneself to those standards produces a very high art, but also creates almost insurmountable pressure on the artist--the danger, a stifling self-criticism which results in paralysis.
On the other side, there's a lot to be said for the freedom to do what you feel like doing, even if it's ugly, even if its awkward, even if it stinks, even if you don't have knowledge or background or credentials, the courage of that, not having to judge anything but just doing it--this was the punk motto, DIY--Do It Yourself. And it can be loud and tasteless and ugly, but you're doing it and the hell with everyone. Two stances toward creativity.
What works of art and what other writers have inspired you and shaped your journey as a novelist?
I'm a tai chi practitioner, and we talk about our lineage masters. My own personal lineage I guess you could trace me from Poe, through Doestoyevsky, Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and Joyce Carol Oates. I'm a bit Gothic in my sensibilities, Russian in my taste for extremes. Though a big secondary branch of influence has been Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, and from them to Laurence Durrell. I've definitely been influenced by the LA writing that has established Los Angeles as a literary entity: Joan Didion, John Fante, Charles Bukowski, Kate Braverman, John Rechy, Eve Babitz, also the great noir writers Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain.
Poetry inspires me a great deal-Joseph Brodsky, T.S. Eliot, Anne Sexton, Dylan Thomas, Carl Sandburg. I like the 'Silver Age' Russian poets, Akhmatova, Pasternak, Tsvetayeva... I'm a big fan of Anne Carson. I'm very auditory--I like to read poetry aloud, hear poets read their own work. I like poetry and prose that has a distinctly musical quality, a strong voice. I hear my characters before I see them. Film is also a great inspiration and appears in all my work.
You teach creative writing at the University of Southern California. Can you share anything about your writing process, perhaps something you tell your students to inspire them?
The thing I tell my students that they hate to hear is not to expect your writing to support you. Art is a child, not a workhorse. Pay cash and don't get used to a lifestyle you have to maintain.
My process is that I write all the time, think all the time, and try to live while I'm working. I keep notebooks. As a teacher I'm very nuts and bolts--when I was taking writing classes, I hated the ones where everybody was good and everything was good and there was nothing you could hold onto.
To inspire my students, I tell them that the great thing about writing is that you don't need anybody's permission to do it. All you need is the desire. It took me a long time to sell my first short story--ten years. Writing constantly, sending out stories constantly. I got to a crisis where I had to
decide whether to bag it or keep going.
That I could write my whole life and never publish anything scared me to death. But then I realized if I was on my deathbed, I could still say I did what I wanted in life. I am a free human being. I can do what I want and no one can take this away from me. I don't need anybody's permission or seal of approval.
What's your favorite part of the writing experience? How do you manage to balance your writing with your teaching career? Do the two conflict with or nourish each other?
My favorite part of writing is when the angels sing. That's when you're writing and something just lifts you up and sings through you, like a great jazz solo, just wailing. To be the instrument, that's when it's heaven itself. The rest is just hard work.
I love teaching. Writing for me is about getting the intellect out of the way and working down into the unconscious self, feeling it out, teasing it out. Intellectualizing about my work keeps me on the surface. I'm constantly trying to shut off the critical, rational part of myself to let the other come through.
Teaching lets me use the highly developed intellectual, analytical side of my mind, it gives me an outlet. It's a great balance.
