Tony Earley
Tony Earley
Tony Earleyis an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, but grew up in North Carolina. His stories are often set in North Carolina...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
years years-ago ten
How do you tell somebody how to find what they're looking for when ten years ago you came from the same place, and have yet to find it yourself?
change drive idiot point radar talking
I drive my wife crazy. I'm hypersensitive, which she will often point out. She'll say something, and I find the way she said it hurtful. And she'll look at me like I'm an idiot and say, 'What are you talking about?' My radar is probably tuned way too sensitively. I wouldn't want to change it because I do think it's an important part of what I do.
car left pushing takes
Depression is like pushing a car up a hill. It takes all my energy to push the car up the hill. I don't have any energy left to write.
bill chases fred ghost good home line price serial uncle
I come from a long line of serial embellishers. Sometimes a good story's got a ghost in it; sometimes a panther chases my Uncle Bill and Fred Price home from a coon hunt.
anywhere barrier blush books days divorce longing marriage movies sexual starts stay trained
I think a big part of marriage is not going anywhere on those days you feel you really want to. It's like in the Barrier Islands. If you want to stay together, don't leave. I think just culturally - in the media, in movies, in books - we're trained to divorce when that first blush of sexual longing starts to fade. That's just where marriage starts.
admire believe deeply found unafraid worth writer
I think irony precludes really feeling deeply about anything. I just didn't want to be that kind of writer who found nothing that wasn't worth indictment. I admire Willa Cather so much because she was unafraid to have big feelings and put them on the page. I just want to be able to believe in things.
began english good half hometown literary major poet reporter three tortured university
I was an English major in college. I was an obnoxious, tortured poet who wasn't very good. And after I graduated, I was a newspaper reporter in my hometown for three and a half years. And then I went and got my MFA at University of Alabama. And while I was at Alabama, that's when I began publishing, first literary magazines, and then at Harper's.
either family grew impart source stories telling
The stories in 'Jim the Boy' are either made up or appropriated from some source other than my family. But the idea of a family telling stories to the kid, often to impart some kind of lesson, that's very familiar, and that's the way that I grew up.
five gets goes shaved terms
The writing is the first thing that goes when I get a little down. Just like... in terms of how I feel, it's like the writing is in the top five percent, and then that's the first part that gets shaved off, and I start down a little bit.