DYLAN LANDIS: I've had several. One is Toni Morrison, who wrote my favorite book ever, Song of Solomon. I know many people say Beloved is her best book. My favorite of hers is Song of Solomon. And I have probably read that book 10 times, no exaggeration.
And when I lived in Washington, DC, the National Portrait Gallery had this huge portrait of her, I mean like eight feet tall. And when I couldn't write, which at that time of my life, I was really blocked, I would walk over, about two blocks away, to the National Portrait Gallery and I would stand in front of her slightly severe looking portrait and I would say, Ms. Morrison, I can't write. And she would say, I don't care about your problems, you go back and write, don't put it at my doorstep, you deal with it, you have to write, that's your job.
And I would go back and I would write because she was right, that was my job. And I really admire her. And now, I don't know her age, but she's in constant pain and she has said I can only stand for six minutes at a time, she's in a wheelchair, and that the only way she can escape the pain is to write. It lifts her out of her body. She doesn't take painkillers. She's just my model, my role model. I worship her.
And Louise Erdrich because she writes about the same population all the time. And I, also, in a much smaller way, write about the same group of people all the time. And my mentor, Jim Caruso, an LA novelist, he once told me, it takes faith and patience to be a writer. You need faith that you can do the work and patience to get it done, just a terrific mentor and teacher for me