The Post interviewed the New York Times best-selling author Augusten Burroughs about his new book, Magical Thinking
a compilation of humorous essays about outrageous life experiences.
The Post: When writing Magical Thinking did you ever feel vulnerable knowing you were letting strangers into your inner life and most personal experiences?
Burroughs: No, you think it would make you feel vulnerable, but it really doesn't because I don't think about all the people reading it. If you do think about that, you become too inhibited. I have to really write basically for me. And then I go out with the book and meet a gazillion people, and people seem to appreciate your honesty when you open up. So it's actually less scary to reveal yourself to complete strangers than you think it is.
The Post: What inspired you to pick up a pen and start writing as a career, and why didn't you pick a different career, such as your former aspiration to be a model?
Burroughs: You know the reason I started writing - I was really young, about 12 - was because I had to because my living situations at the time were so appalling, and I was so uncomfortable, and writing was the only thing that made me feel better. So it was never because I wanted to become a writer with a capital W and sit around the round table talking about Chekhov and live sort of the writing life, but I had to write. Writing is purposeful in that it's like a steam valve, to release the steam and the pressure that was building inside of me. So that's why I started to write, and I lost my way when I was in my 20s, and I didn't write at all, and instead all I did was take anti-depressants, and I drank, and I've never been more unhappy. The modeling didn't work out because I don't have the look for it. I just crave a lot more; I don't think I could do anything except just write.
The Post: How do you feel being compared to fellow humor essayist David Sedaris?
Burroughs: I guess it's a compliment. I haven't even read him until people told me all the time that we had a similar style. So I have read him now. I've read almost everything, and I really like his stuff. I think he's great. His prose is very smooth and accomplished and very actually sophisticated. I take it as a compliment because people love him.
The Post: Do people ever accuse you of lying about your life because you have lived a life so far from what it is considered normal?
Burroughs: Sometimes, when Running With Scissors came out for the first time, there were people who were like, Oh my God this can't possibly be true. You know it's weird, for some people, some of the stuff I go through is just unfathomable and think it just can't possibly be true, but then there are other people who live very similar lives, and they lived even worse lives and had even more outrageous experiences than I've had.
The Post: Do you have any career aspirations you'd like to fulfill after your writing career?
Burroughs: I think it would be really fun to create a completely different television show, something that we haven't seen before. I think that would be challenging and fun, and I'd always liked to do that with advertising. And the same thing with a film, I think it would be fun to create, something completely new. But, I don't get tired of writing; I'm going to keep writing until I drop dead, or until my wheelchair rolls off a cliff.
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Kallie Hinton
