JOE R. LANSDALE
– interview –
TFF 30.11.2010

Recently member of the Jury at the last Torino Film festival 2010, Joe Lansdale explains easily about his connection with cinema and artists, about his latest books and that kind of inspiration coming from his loved homeland Texas.

– Different themes in books and comic books: what do you prefer writing and why?
JL: I have to say that I prefer writing, first of all. Books, screenplays and comic books are so different in the approach, but they all fascinate me. Writing is my life, you know…

– What about your way of writing: from the idea of the subject to the writing session and the promotion time, too?
JL: Maybe the most difficult thing to do, as a writer, is the promotion, because you have to make people aware of your new upcoming book and story, while they have not read yet it. And maybe it is the best thing to do, for me, despite most of my colleagues do not like to promote their works. Make someone interested, talking, about what you’ve written makes your work complete, I think.

– You’ve recently came out with the new book “Devil Red”: would you tell us something about it?
JL: Hap and Leonard have became carachters with such a strenght in being humanized I had not considered before or during my writing sessions. They’re detectives full of melancholy and coming from my Texas and in this story they come from having met the killer Vanilla Ride. They have to solve a case about vampires and mercenaries killers. I’m proud of this new book, hoping you’d love it…

– You come from Texas too, and you speak about Texas like a state of mind, firstly than a place itself. Why and how this location influences your writing?
JL: My roots are at the bases of my works and writing too. Texas is where I grow up and where I live, so that typical place and society, weather and people in, influence me so much. I don’t think I could write better than what I do telling about Texas! You live in Italy, and you are involved in culture, I hope, since you’re born. In my country there’s a different situation, because we do not have the same ancient story in culture and history, but people are committed to try to increase cultur on their owne, watching lots of movies, listening to so many different kind of music, reading different kinds of books and comic books and so on.

– Here, at TFF 2010, you’re a member of the Jury: what about that kind of experience, and your personal connection with cinema.
JL: I had a book became a movie and a story became a television short series. And I’ve written so many screenplays for cinema, tv and animation cinema too, that are now in Hollywood waiting for being produced, I hope. Also I’ve written movie articles for about 30 years, and I’m co-producing another stuff in that world of art, so I can say that I am in love and also involved in cinema too. And being here as a member of the Jury makes me happy and it’s part of my work too, because I have the chance to study other’s works.


– It’s written that your favourite writers are Burroughs, Mark Twain and Jack London, Fredric Brown, Ray Bradbury and Robert E. Howard: why and what inspires you most from their books?
JL: There are so many writers from the past and the present that have inspired me in my career, I have to say! I think that Mark Twain’s look at the world, so dark but from an external point of view, is the thing in his literature that has influenced me mostly. For example. Totally they’re all so different, in being men and in telling stories, but what conquered me in their works has been itself the way they have written focusing in people’s behaviour and in painting the perfect social location for their stories.  

– What about the new book, “Hyenas: a Hap and Leonard Novella”?
JL: It will come out next year, once again with Collins and Pine, enmeshed in a web of danger, duplicity and escalating mayhem, in a novella once harrowing, hilarious and also utterly impossibile to put down and tell: the story starts with a barroom brawl that is both brutal and comic. I hope, for that book, that you’ll notice first of all the humor sense in it!

– What must be the connection between a writer and the artists/illustrators of the cover of his books?
JL: I think that when you, the writer, have a strong connection with the artist who’s going to draw your cover, the book would be a success even before coming out. That’s why I have worked with some artists, friends of mine, for lots of my books. And sometimes illustrations are so amazing that people are so fascinated by them and obviously will buy the book! Artists’ work is not so estimated in today’s publishing world, unfortunately, but in my opionion covers are basically important as well as the story of a book, for the marketing and for the success of the work too. It’s a “new kind” of art, in which two different artists are connected for the same project, like actors and directors, for example. Publishers and public have to understand that.

– What would you suggest to all the people who’d love to work as writers?
JL: To read, and read, and read again. Every kind of thing they can. And also to be influenced by other kind of arts, like music, cinema, because they’re the perfect vehicles to increase the inspiration, in my opinion. And then, you have, of course, to do lots of pratics to improve and experiment new ways of writing. And be patient, of course!

by Giorgio De Cicco, Ognjan Tolmacevic & Ilaria Rebecchi