He has won numerous awards and honours including the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1988 for WORLD'S END. He received a PhD degree in 19th Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977, his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, and his BA in English and History from SUNY Potsdam in 1968. He has been a member of the English Department at the University of Southern California since 1978. His fiction regularly appears in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The Paris Review, GQ, Antaeus and Granta. T.C. Boyle lives in Santa Barbara, California.

His new novel TALK TALK was published by Bloomsbury in July 2006, with the paperback edition following in January 2007.

TCB. I don't at all consider this a contradiction in terms. The very best novels are certainly page turners. As for the prose, this is what a good novel delivers: art and beauty along with the punch of entertainment we expect of any fiction.

MB. Why no comma or periods in the title? Is that because your characters are out of breath?

TCB. The explanation lies inside. "Talk Talk" is an English approximation for Sign, indicating people talking a lot. This accords, as I see it, with the main theme of the novel re. communication.

MB. What inspired you to write "Talk Talk"? Identity theft, deaf rights, Russian brides, demeaning bureaucracy and even gourmet food are all worthy, even delicious issues, but an unlikely combination all together. And why crime as the leading theme? As far as I know, the last great literary writer who dealt with the issue of crime and was able to produce a perfect villain-victim was Dostoevsky.

TCB. Well, certainly old Fyodor is a man to reckon with. However, if you look to my previous work, you will see the seeds of this sort of story there. The short story "Killing Babies," e.g. Or "Termination Dust." The use of a deaf heroine seemed to me a way into the question of identity and the language by which we define ourselves individually.

MB. Talking about bureaucrats. While the main villain, William "Peck" Wilson, may appear somewhat sympathetic (he was a victim, he loves his mother and daughter, he cares about his friend and his illegal immigrant-lover, Natalie, and his stepdaughter a bit), but every single government official is stupid, mean and inefficient. Though it rings true with my own experience, what was the reason for your portraying them all as dark characters? TCB. I think you must consider p.o.v. here. All three p.o.v. characters are wrought up and so their experience is reflected in their attitude. Nonetheless, I have to admit that I am impatient with bureaucrats, aren't you? In fact, I'm impatient with just about everybody and everything. There's work to be done: look out!

MB. If you are impatient (so am I), why don't you write flash fiction? It's a genre of instant gratification. You seem to gravitate toward larger work. Is flash too tight for you?

TCB. My stories come in all sizes, and I have done flash fiction in the past (check out "The Hit-Man," e.g.).

MB. I was surprised by the abrupt ending. But, in a way, it's typical for a literary book. Did you use it as a contrast to the action plot?

TCB. I'd be hard-pressed to say what is typical for a literary book. Literary books, unlike genre books, are in search of something new and surprising. As for the ending of Talk Talk, I think you might look to the expression of theme. When the action ends, both Dana and Peck speak-communicate through language-for the first time, and as each realizes this, each understands how futile all of their antagonism has been.

MB. The sheer volume of research you put in your books is staggering, especially in this one and "The Inner Circle." By the way, I hated "The Inner Circle's" characters, especially the protagonist, but couldn't force myself to stop reading. Where do you find the time for this research? I guess you spend a lot of time on the Net?

TCB. Glad you hated John Milk. Wonderful reaction. I'm pleased. Research derives mainly from seeing things, from books, and now, yes, from the Internet. Marvelous tool for checking those out-of-the-way facts. And I am using it mightily these days, as I am writing a novel about Frank Lloyd Wright and his women (called, simply, "The Women"), which is narrated by a (fictional) Japanese apprentice. Lots of arcane and not-so-arcane stuff. Very funny too. I hope to finish by the end of summer and get on to some new short stories to complete the next collection, which is about two-thirds of the way there. The novella written by Dana Halter—"Wild Child"—will make up a large chunk of it.

MB. Is the Japanese apprentice in "The Women" a native born American or an immigrant? It's always fun to describe the American life through the eyes of the outsider as you did with Natalie, though she is learning quickly how to behave like a native. Sort of Voltaire's Candide.

TCB. Yes, my Japanese—like Hiro Tanaka of East Is East—is native to Japan.

MB. Back to the subject of research. The Washington Post review says: "T. Coraghessan Boyle's new novel about identity theft is so perfectly aligned with the day's news that the FBI should search his house for stolen credit cards." I don't know if they really should, but it seems that you have the know-how. How do you do your research? Do you have assistants?

TCB. I do not, alas, have any assistance whatever. I must do all my own work.

MB. For the sake of writers among our readership, what is the secret of the guttural reaction your characters induce in the reader? There have to be some skills involved in addition to innate talent?

TCB. I really don't know except to say that I try to enter my characters' points of view and give their version of reality.

MB. I would like to say that you are my favorite contemporary English-language writer. The writer who competes with you in my mind is Boris Akunin. He writes detectives, but they are literary works. His "Winter Queen" has been translated into English. It was a pleasure to correspond with you, and I hope that you will submit a 500 word story to Vestal Review one day. Good luck with "The Women." I look forward to reading it and whatever else you will write.

TCB. Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad I could help out.

Mark Budman was born and raised in the former Soviet Union, but now resides in New York State. His fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry have appeared or are about to appear in Mississippi Review, Virginia Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, Iowa Review, McSweeney's, Turnrow, Connecticut Review, WW Norton anthology Flash Fiction Forward , and elsewhere. He is the publisher of a flash fiction magazine Vestal Review, and the recipient of the Broome Country Art Council grant. He is also the interview editor for Web Del Sol and a book reviewer for The Bloomsbury Review and The American Book Review.