Cormac McCarthy speaks (again?)

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For a recluse, Cormac McCarthy sure is starting to get around. First, there was his June 5 interview with Oprah Winfrey; now, he’s chatting with … Joel and Ethan Coen?

Yes, in the current issue of Time magazine, McCarthy sits down with the Coen brothers, whose adaptation of his 2005 novel “No Country for Old Men” hits the screen Nov. 9. Time’s Lev Grossman moderates.

What’s interesting about the conversation is that it actually seems to be a conversation, with a lot of back and forth about both art and life.

Here’s a taste:

E.C. Do you ever get, in terms of novel writing, stuff that’s too outrageous? One wouldn’t guess that you reject stuff as being too outrageous.

C.M. I don’t know, you’re somewhat constrained in writing a novel, I think. Like, I’m not a fan of some of the Latin American writers, magical realism. You know, it’s hard enough to get people to believe what you’re telling them without making it impossible. It has to be vaguely plausible.

E.C. So it’s not an impulse that you even have.

C.M. No, not really. Because I think that’s misdirected. In films you can do outrageous stuff, because hey, you can’t argue with it; there it is. But I don’t know. There’s lots of stuff that you would like to do, you know. As your future gets shorter, you have to ...

J.C. Prioritize?

C.M. Yeah. Somewhat. A friend of mine, who’s slightly older than me, told me, “I don’t even buy green bananas anymore.” [He laughs.] I’m not quite there yet, but I understood what he was saying.

David L. Ulin