not because I’m particularly courageous or whatever. Because I
believed in it. And I believed in our freedom of expression. So, it
was printed and nothing happened, thank God.
However, I didn’t want to talk to the press about it,
because it would only inflame the situation. Finally, I was
living in Woodland Hills at the time, and I was doing a little
work out back with a couple of guys, and a reporter from
The
New York Times
came by, with his briefcase and his suit and
sat me down at my picnic table, and we talked just as we’re
talking now and I explained to him just what I am explaining
CONVERSATIONS
34
summer
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fall
to you. I said I didn’t mean to be provocative; I don’t want
people coming to bomb my house. And he said that T.C. Boyle
doesn’t want people to come to bomb his house, and he lives
in Woodland Hills. He didn’t really give a shit one way or the
other, so finally I had to talk to them because they were just
driving me crazy. Thank God I’m not a criminal. Those poor
guys have to wear a bag over their head.
The editor of
Charlie Hebdo
paid the ultimate price for
upholding the right of freedom of expression, and he’s a hero.
Will Muhammad be featured in anything you’ll be writing now
or in the future?
If it moves me to do so, yes. People forget, my first novel,
Water Music
, has a lot of fun with Islam. It’s about Mungo Park’s
exploration of Africa in the late 18th century, early 19th century.
Of course, there was a great Islamic influence at that time, and I
had lots of fun with that.
Looking out at the chaos, one can’t help but wonder how long
humanity can go on. How, for example, do we get through the next
one hundred years?
That is questionable. I mean you see the complete breakdown
of societies throughout the world, the fight for resources, the
desperate dislocations that are going to occur from global
warming and climate change, species extinction. Again, the
