Will Thomas
Will Thomas
Will Thomas may refer to:...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
book copy edition fiction gave noted ray science work
When I was fifteen, my father gave me a first edition copy of Ray Bradbury's magnificent work, 'The Martian Chronicles.' I had read other science fiction by noted authors, but this book was something else altogether.
close drafted eighteen joseph stunning time war work
I was eighteen when I first read Joseph Heller's stunning work 'Catch-22,' and was at that time close to being drafted for the fruitless and unenlightened war in Viet Nam.
since
Since I can't write the greatest American novel, I'm going to write the longest American novel.
job reader
My only job is to write in such a way that the reader gets a new handle on humanity.
accused knew riding serious
I started writing serious books so late because I knew I'd be accused of riding on my father's coattails.
appetite artistic burdened hardly knowledge reliable sake seem
I would hardly say that I have a rich knowledge of anything in particular, but I do seem to be burdened with an unseemly appetite for intellectual and artistic erudition, which, for the sake of balance, I keep well harnessed to a reliable sense of the absurd.
good practice takes time writer
My father told us all the time: to become a good writer takes writing. Because the more you do it, the better you get at it. It's like bull-riding. You can't do it once, you know. You've got to practice it and practice it.
built chinese fascinated goes history invented largest money ships
I've always been fascinated by the Chinese. This goes a long way back to my childhood. The Chinese invented money, movable type, clocks, and built the largest ships in the history of the world.
bow breakfast dad fathers finish somewhere ties work
I thought my dad was out of work, because my friends had fathers with briefcases who'd go off somewhere with bow ties on. But my father would finish breakfast and go back to his room.
gave grow john light shadow shoulders
You didn't grow up in the shadow of John Steinbeck. He put you on his shoulders and gave you all the light you wanted.
defend great held history honor human john man particular people powerless rights risked worldly
My father, John Steinbeck, was a man who held human history in great reverence, and in particular the biographies of those people who had risked their lives, their fortunes, and their worldly honor to defend the rights and prerogatives of those who were powerless to defend themselves.
against easily fools judged number
My father believed, like Pericles, that a man's genius could be easily judged by the number of unenlightened fools set in phalanx against his ideas.
characters drawn historical taken whether
The characters in my stories, whether historical or fictional, usually prove to be a compilation of influences taken from differing sources, but never drawn from one model.
dictate fresh looking movies seen
It's kind of true that they just start making the same movie over and over again. It's also true that the times dictate what kind of movies get made and what kind are not. So I'm always looking for something that's a little fresh and something that I haven't seen before.