"(Gordon Lish) got his hooks into me early in my career. The first story I ever published was in Esquire. I was a student at Iowa then. It was 'Heart of a Champion.' In fact, Lish came up with the title, which is a great title. He did get his fingers in a little and made some changes."

--from "T.C. Boyle on His Life's Stories: 70 and Counting," an interview with Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News, 13 December 1998.
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Scott Rettberg: "'Heart of a Champion' is one of my favorite stories.... It's a good story for an Intro. to Lit class, because it helps get people over the bridge from watching TV to seeing what can be done with literature."

T.C. BOYLE:  "Right, and also discussing the ramifications of it, and what TV feeds you, and the sentimentality, and other notions that we're fed and how it forms our society and our view of society, and how the author subverts all of that.  You start at ground zero again."

--from "Interview with T. Coraghessan Boyle."  About.com Website. 15 December 1998.

--Sandye Utley, Cincinnati, Ohio
Last Page Update: 7  March  2001