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[captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: always pleased to have t.c. boyle on this program. he is a professor at usc of english, and the altar of a new novel, "when the killing's done." we always look forward to your return. >> likewise, tavis. my favorite show, and you are my favorite host. tavis: this is an annual appearance for you, it seems. i says does he write a book per year? i always count on seeing you at least once a year. >> and i am pleased to be back. this is my job, tavis. tavis: you have to read it chuck taylors? there you go. -- you have the red truck trailers. >> i am typing all the time. you give me a year, that is what happens. tavis: how do you type, computer, a typewriter? >> computer. tavis: what happens if it does not come to you? >> this is why i keep a loaded gun right next to me. .undays, you don't get there some days, you do. some days i cannot get anything, but i try to force it until it comes. that is all i do is write fiction. i don't want to write essays or give lectures, i want to do this one thing. i am my own boss and i push myself to do it. i want to discover something, see where it is going. tavis: you do one thing, and you like to write. why did this become that one thing? >> long story, tavis. tavis: we have time. >> i love the idea of a liberal arts education. i come from a working-class family in new york. good schools, good public schools. i went to college to be a music major. i played saxophone and clarinet. john coltrane was my hero. i flunked off the audition. i declared history major. sophomore year, i had to take english class, american short stories. i became a double major, english and history. junior year i went into a creative writing classroom and found what i wanted to do. the idea of a liberal arts education is great because you have time to find out what you want to do. tavis: what are you teaching the students at usc this specifically? >> i am teaching a creative writing fiction workshop. by the time the students get to me, they know what they want to do. it is ideal. by the way, i always have my class friday afternoon, as a test of their loyalty. it is the only class and the school. tavis: wow. >> you would not have been a serious student of creative writing. tavis: i would not have been there. >> they are into it the same way i am, and they are into it. what they learn from me or any other author, like you learn from a musician by learning and hearing other musicians, i am their coach. i help them make discoveries they might make a few years anyway. that is it. tavis: i am glad you made the point about having a class on friday afternoon to test their loyalty, because i totally get that. what level of loyalty is required to do the fiction thing and do it well? i have written 15, 16 books, all nonfiction, and i have the greatest respect for fiction writers because you create stuff out of the ether. with nonfiction, you start with something to work on and you write about that. you start with something. you guys start with nothing. >> yeah, but -- this has a subject and is about an issue. it is about looking at the islands, 18 years, driving up the coast, wondering what happens there. i began to read in the newspaper. by the way, have a clipping on my refrigerator door that says, eagles are arrive, pigs are killed. the removal of the invasive animals and the big fight, between the peta faction on the one hand and biologists on the other. i had a ready-made subject. i met the biologists, did the whole thing. yet when i get down to it, i am going to create characters and make a drama from the actual facts. that is how it is different. but i have a basis. like you with a nonfiction book, i am taking notes, studying a subject, and somehow while i am doing that to get the idea of the story. tavis: what i love about the book, "when the killing's done," i love sinking my teeth into stuff where at the epicenter of that there is this question of who should play god. that whole notion turns me on what i am reading anything, because you that there is back and forth. tell me about that at the center of the book. >> i quote from genesis in the beginning, giving us dominion over all the animals. 10 years ago, actual events, the park service decided to bomb it with rat poison to get rid of the invasive rats that got there in 1853 in the wreck of the winfield scott paddle wheel steamer. the rats have been there all the time, eating the eggs and nests of the ground that nesting birds. the park service did this and it eliminated the rats. but in actual fact, a peta guy and a body went out there with giant backpacks full of vitamin k, which is the antidote to rat poison, and spread all over the island. they got arrested for feeding what life and a national park. -- they got arrested for feeding wild life in a national park. i just follow that and put them in opposition. tavis: in the process of writing, what happens that let you know that you wore on to something? that this is going to work? how do you know when what you are doing is making sense? >> first of all, like any writer, i get into an unconscious state. i don't hear the phone rang, i don't know where i am. i have background music. i am deep inside it. that is one i know. but of course, when you get to the sex scene, the author is feeling sexy. when you get to the food scene, it is true. that is how it goes. tavis: you mentioned music, john coltrane. it does not get much better than john cold frame. -- it does not get much better than john coltrane. the role that music plays in your riding, i assume that there is music playing when you are writing. that always. i listened to classical and the jazz of my youth, which is miles and coltrane, toni rollins. tavis: what does that do? >> it is a rhythmic. the writing has to be rhythmic. that is why i like to perform to crowds and read to them, because it has a beat to it. the other interesting thing, my poor long-suffering wife back at the hotel, somebody has to do the eating and sleeping and shopping. she has to listen to me every day read aloud to her. it is just so that she could hear it. and when i am reading to her, i can feel the beat. the beat that the music gave to me when i was writing, and that frees my mind to figure out what is coming up next. i have no program, no idea what it will be. every day, i just follow with. tavis: back to where we begin, since you put these out at about 1 per year, you have another? >> i never take a break. i'm a workaholic. the reason i am so productive is i discovered some years ago i am probably going to produce more books before i die then after i die, so i am doing it while i am still breathing. i am well into the next book, well also set on the channel islands. it is furthest up the coast, blowing sand, sand storms. i just discovered historical stories. this one is contemporary and it is about ecology. the other one is about to families that live out there in different times and what happened to them. tavis: as prolific as you are, are you concerned about the state of the publishing business and whether or not the business can keep up with you? >> of course, and we talked about the loaded gun next to the typewriter. i still have a readership. i am sort of an advocate for contemplate of time. get unplugged. i have a cell phone in my pocket. it is never on unless i want to call somebody. i don't feel obligated to look at the mail every five minutes. get unplugged, get loose, settle down, read a book. that is the kind of life a lot of us don't have any more, but i do. tavis: get unplugged, settle down, get loose, read a book. this is the new book from t.c. boyle called "when the killing's done." it is good, as is everything he puts out. it always delighted to have you won. thank you for keeping us on your list. >> likewise, tavis. tavis: up next, actress anne heche. stay with us. pleased to welcome anne heche back to the program. she stars in a new film comedy named "cedar rapids." it is now in theaters. here is a scene. >> wow, whoo! oh, ronald, you look ron-tastic. >> just want to squeeze you to death, yet little firecracker. how are you, sweetheart? >> so good. my lips are sealed. >> you know those guys? >> from the fitness center. i am sorry. >> no, she is not . isno, i am not. -- no, she is not. >> no, i am not. tavis: hours just whispering while the clip was playing, i have never been to sundance. a scene to talk to people after they leave sundance. -- i seem to talk to people after they leave sundance. >> let me be there. anne takes tavis to sundance. tavis: that sounds like a documentary that we will film an show next year in sundance. there is so much was coming out of sundance. >> it is always an honor to be asked to be there, because it is the precursor to hopefully good reviews. that is always an honor. comedy is fantastic because everybody is happy and giggling, and some of the films that have there are depressing subject matter. this is not that. tavis: what about this character? we know you as a gorgeous blonde -- >> say that again. i am sorry, what? tavis: gorgeous blonde. i heard that it was your decision to have the red hair. >> this is about an insurance salesman who goes to a convention once a year. tavis: there are not blind insurance sales women? that she is a very serious woman. -- >> she is a very serious woman. i think it says something different. when you are blind, and you have not had this experience, you have to go to the hair salon a lot because you don't want to show your real color. i wanted her to be a woman who took her job and family more seriously than how she looked. once a year, she covers her hair. this is the one time she gets wild. people are used to see me as blonde. that was just kind of the beginning. i just thought, fox, needs to be red head. tavis: tell me about the story line. that this is an insurance convention. -- >> this is an insurance convention. he represents his company. because he has never been out of his tiny town, he thinks this is the grandest, most wonderful, most since the experience he has ever seen. he meets up with three people who take him on a ride it to open him up and experience life. i am one, john, and steve are the other characters. tavis: you explain how you won it the character be portrayed on the screen. i want the back story. how is it that you decided you wanted to be in this particular project at this point in your career, make the decisions. >> it is not hard when it is a funny script. it is beautifully written. it was funny, has heart. it was a movie -- it was born in kindness. it was not mean humor, and i that. look for that might be a little dirty, this movie, but it is not mean. i loved that there was respect for people in the midwest, and i decided -- i was born in ohio. tavis: i am from indiana. >> my parents are from indiana. i liked that was shining a light on this in a comedic way but respectful. it is also one of the kind when you get to be the role of the strong woman who was one of the guy's a little bit and also be a leading lady. this was not a movie that i would say no to. it was a blessing when it came to me. it was fun all the way through. tavis: you are really good at this comedy thing. >> thank you. tavis: you are good with dramas, too. i want to ask if there is a preference. >> well, i have always kind of found that the characters that i do are born and truth. whether that takes me on an emotional journey that is deeper, when you make people laugh, it is really great. it is a very different experience. i think part of my goal as an actress is to move people, reach people in a place where they understand and they're comfortable with who i am and what character i am and who i am bringing to the screen, but there is nothing like sitting in the theater, you tell a joke, and people roll. tavis: this that mean that you want to do stand-up comedy? >> oh, my gosh, i don't think anybody wants to see me do that. i am better when people write for me. tavis: the question that i wanted to ask, not the preference, silly question, forgive me. >> it is not a silly question at all. tavis: think the question i really want to ask, which one of these do you have to work harder at. which one do you, anne heche, have to work harder at to make you believe ball to us? -- to meet you believable to us? >> in drama, when you stick to the truth, as long as it is true, it is real. comedy, as i have learned knout in my older age, i think, you know what, the difficulty of comedy is you need to not only have truth but also a perspective on what it is that you are trying to say, that is hopefully humorous. you were doing an insurance convention. i don't know, they're probably not a laugh riot, so you want the perspective on what would be funny about being an insurance salesman. it is kind of eight layers processed than drama sometimes, -- it is kind of a player's process than from the sometimes, because you try to make something grow out of something that does not exist. that is the fun of comedy. and hopefully something somebody has not seen before or done before. tavis: should i follow through and send you the e-mail from insurance salesmen that are not funny? >> totally. i can imagine on the insurance blogs. tavis: you mentioned your kids and earlier. i happen to know your elder. >> you know homer. tavis: how were they? >> we have a baby, hatless, too. -- atlas, too. they were born the same week, the second and seventh. homer said i am never sharing a birthday party with whatever is in your belly. tavis: i pray for you. you have to birthday parties in the same week? is only 3,t atlaws so his birthday party was not a riot. and your brothers balloons are also yours. tavis: i have friends. >> you have friends? we will talk more on that. tavis: i have friends who have kids, and it cracks me up when i go to their parties for their kids and they will spend exorbitant amounts of money and do everything for a 2-year-old who does not understand what is going on, and what to play with the paper. you not into that yet? >> not yet. in fact, as i was out shopping for homer's birthday cake, he saw a red ball that bounced around. i said, great, present done. we will take that, $3, down. and i gave it to him. he loves it. they don't know. how long can i keep him in this vague understanding of birthday? i could save a lot of money. tavis: when i first got to know you was in a time of your life when you were in the news all the time for the relationship you were in bed. what do i want to ask here? is life easier now, is it better now? you prefer being out of that kind of spotlight? >> do you want to answer that question? tavis: i am serious, you were in our faces every day. i am just wondering at this point in your life, being able to be a mother, have two kids, not be involved in all that, you know -- >> it is funny, i have always been working, yet sometimes things have taken over and then more interesting and personal lives. sometimes it is like, wow, it is funny people are interested in that. i have no idea why people would be interested in the choices i made in my life. you do the work, still the wing work, and you think, my work must not be interesting enough to take over. tavis: i don't think that. >> but now it is really wonderful that people -- or that i have been given the opportunity to actually be offering the art up to the world and a way that kind of has overtaken the people in my life. it is really nice. it is nice because it is what i do, it is what i offer. or could be said that my personal life is really boring. what is wonderful is i have come to a beautiful place in my life and i have a gorgeous husband and two children and people are starting to pay attention, as i said, to the great opportunities people are offering to me on film and television. tavis: "hung" is coming back. >> third season. is really great. we're just guarding our third episode. when i arrived on set, said, i cannot believe it. it feels wonderful to be back. a it was lucky enough to have a job three years in a row? -- who was lucky enough to have a job three years in a row? not many actors have that opportunity. you do. tavis: because i am not acting. i would not last a day. i am honored to have you on this show, please give my best to homer. he is only nine cred. anne used to be my next door neighbor. that is how i know homer. please bring him by silicon say hello. the movie, "cedar rapids," "hun." -- "hung." that is our show for tonight. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org smiley join'm tavis me next time with potential gop candidate and indiana governor mitch daniels, plus vector 10 daniels -- plus actor ted it danson. that is next time. we will see you then. >> all i know is his name is james, and he needs extra help with his reading. >> i'm james. >> yes. >> to everyone making a difference, you help us all live better. >> nationwide insurance supports tavis smiley. with every question and answer, nationwide insurance is proud to join tavis in working to improve financial literacy and remove obstacles to economic empowerment one conversation at a time. nationwide is on your side. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--