Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 21 Loan approval is subject to credit approval and program guidelines. Not all loan programs are available in all states for all loan amounts. Interest rates and program terms are subject to change without notice. Visit usbank.com to learn more about U.S. Bank products and services. Mortgage, home equity and credit products are offered by U.S. Bank National Association. Deposit products are offered by U.S. Bank National Association. Member FDIC. ©2021 U.S. Bank 384105c 2 /21 usbank.com/mortgage Call today to learn more. The right mortgage supports your homebuying goals and fits your long-term financial strategy. We're here to provide you with a convenient, personalized way to purchase or refinance your home. Work with a mortgage lender from your neighborhood. KIMBERLY MACDONALD Mortgage Loan Officer Six 24th Street Billings, MT 59102 Phone: 406.655.1699 Cell: 406.861.0052 kimberly.macdonald@usbank.com NMLS # 470804 WHEN WILL ROBICHEAUX AND HIS MURDEROUS, FALSTAFFIAN PARTNER CLETE RIDE AGAIN? Oh, I just don't know. I went back to the Hollands, and I've got a couple of books coming out about them. We'll see what happens. I just don't think about the future in a work. I never have. I see two scenes ahead, but never more. DOES THAT MEAN YOU DON'T PLAN OUT THE PLOTS TO THE MYSTERIES IN THESE NOVELS IN ADVANCE? No, I don't think so. Characters always come from someplace beyond my grasp. Faulkner put it much better than I. Faulkner said right before his death, "had I not written the books, another hand would have written them for me." HOW LITERALLY DO YOU MEAN THAT? WOULD YOU SAY YOU'RE CHANNELING SOMETHING? I can't really answer. Freud believed that a neurosis allows the person to plumb the unconscious in ways that a healthier person would not be capable of do- ing. It's kind of a left-handed compliment. But the stories again, I believe that in every artist they're in the unconscious. But in teaching creative writing, I used to tell students the big story is right out there, right at the other end of your fingertips. The issue is observation. You've got to listen. You've got to look and see. It's right around you. It always is. Great stories are two feet away. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE WESTERN FILM? YOU'VE MENTIONED SHANE IN YOUR WRITINGS BEFORE. Oh yeah, actually, I talk about it all the time. I've been obsessed with Shane for a long time. Bud Guthrie again. He did the adaptation. It's not a western, real- ly. It's a classical film. A man with no name. Eastwood played a simlar character. He was a knight right out of Chaucer. What a film, what a film. I never got the little boy calling Shane's name out of my mind. It's one of the greatest films ever made. IT IS ONE OF THE GREATS. Boy, and Jack Palance. Oh golly. You remember Jack Palance's last words: "I wouldn't push it," to Shane. Suddenly, he's dead. My other favorite line in there is "You're not going to drink those whiskeys, sheepherder," and Shane says to Ben Johnson, "No, but you are," and then he throws the whiskey into his face and then punches him out. I love Bud Guthrie. He was a fine man. HOW DID YOU COME TO KNOW HIM? He was the first person in Missoula I met by accident. It was 1966, my wife and chil- dren, and we just had moved into the student and faculty housing, and I saw a tennis court and walked down to it. There was a man playing against the wall, and he said, "Get you a racket, and we'll play a game." And he was AB Guthrie. I didn't know his name. I'd never read his name, and I didn't associate him with Shane. WHEN DID YOU FIND OUT HE HAD WRITTEN SHANE? It was years later, I still didn't read The Big Sky and The Way West until years later, and actually, we had moved away, and I was just thunderstruck. I believe that those two books are two of the greatest works ever written. I can't understand how oth- ers—how the recognition has not come to him. The Big Sky is everything Ulysses is, by Joyce, but better. THAT'S A BOLD ASSERTION! He's a better writer than Joyce. It's a towering accomplishment, and the best story about Western settlement is The Way West. I think he won the Pulitzer for that. THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING TO US AND FOR CONTINUING TO ENTERTAIN US, DISTURB US, AND MAKE US THINK. Thank you, you do a great interview. Look me up next time you're in Missoula!

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