Check out this superb interview with T. Coraghessan Boyle from The Paris Review.

I love his take on creating the next Tolstoy:

Take the writers out of the classes, put them in dark cells with a plug for their monitors, a slot at the top of the door for pizza, and a slot at the bottom for waste. Every time a finished story comes back out that top slot, you write them a check for a thousand dollars. In six months, you’ll have Tolstoy.

How nice.