Robert Olen Butler

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Robert Olen Butler

Robert Olen Butler has published 12 novels and six volumes of short fiction. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream. Over the past 15 years he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers’ groups in 17 countries as a Literary Envoy for the US State Department. He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Butler lives in Capps, Florida, which has a population of one. Not surprisingly, he was recently elected Mayor of Capps.

Interviewed 20 June 2015

Ten words to sum up your working life to date ...

One million words of offal. Revelation. One million I embrace.

Nine things you can see from where you're sitting ...

A black cat, Jarvis, lounging at the end of my writing table in the cottage where I work. The green Florida lizard, called an anole, which he watches on the window. Beyond, a live oak tree dripping with Spanish moss. A 1914 pocket watch on the table, wound at the beginning of each writing day. Nearby, a 1935 Pelikan tortoise shell pen filled with Noodler's Antietam ink. An iMac, immediately before me, devoted exclusively to my writing. To my right, a bed, where I sometimes recline to dreamstorm a plot. And upon it, two bichon frises, Susie Q and Sadie, who lie sleeping.

Eight minutes to prepare a meal. What's it going to be ?

English muffin, three strips of fried (USA-style) bacon, two eggs over medium, ground black pepper, all made into a sandwich.

Seven people you'd like to go for a drink with ...

Paul Merton, Gyles Brandreth, John Stewart, Kevin Spacey, Maggie Smith, PG Wodehouse (in a local seance bar, perhaps), Dorothy Parker (hanging out with Plum).

Six things you can't live without ...

Really good coffee beans, olive oil, my iPad, a soft mattress, a jug of kefir and thou (she knows who I mean).

Five favourite words ...

Fungible, gallimaufry, quiddity, mellifluous, bloviate.

Four places you'd run away to ...

London; Saigon; New Orleans; Capps, Florida.

Three books you've bought recently ...

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

Two things that make you rant ...

Petty self-righteousness, violence in the name of religion.

One thing you'd tell your teenage self ...

Write every day and don't be dismayed if the first million words are bad.