Tom Wolfe (original) (raw)

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/24/readersopinions/tom-wolfe.html

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10 Questions for . . .

April 24, 2003

Following his participation in the TimesTalks series on March 8, the author answered NYTimes.com readers' questions.

Q. What would you say was your most satisfying writing experience? In terms of nailing a story, an era, a character?

A. Writers usually have an ideal picture of what they're about to do when they sit down to write. Anthony Burgess once said that dream seldom survives the first paragraph. But "Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers" turned out exactly as I had pictured it.

Q. As a novelist, depicting reality in American culture, how does a topic or theme become relevant enough for you to write about it?

A. Topics and themes involving a lot of people, not just one or two souls, are what I go for. Subjects no one has written about, such as Wall Street's "Masters of the Universe" in the 1980's or the hippie phenomenon, appeal to me most. But I also enjoy coming up with an entirely new take (at least in my eyes) of well known subjects, such as astronauts, real estate developers, and people at the bottom of the employment ladder, i.e., those who do irksome toil.

Q. In your novel "The Bonfire of the Vanities," you chose a different ending when you published it in book form than the one you used when you published it in serialized form. Why did you choose to do this?

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