The writer Thomas McGuane worked at gas stations when he was a kid in Michigan. He dreamed of being a cowboy out West, but he learned to do brake jobs.
He pursued his dreams, going to Wyoming to be a cowboy. Ranchers quickly figured out what he could and couldn’t do. McGuane went from ranch to ranch doing brake jobs.
The best literary interview I’ve read in a while appeared in Anglers Journal. McGuane was friends with Jim Harrison, and the two corresponded for decades. I hope one day to read those letters. But the best part of the interview was McGuane’s recollection of how he’d gone to graduate school and had planned to make a living teaching. He had $600 left from his fellowship, so he went to Montana to fish until he was offered a job.
I thought at some point I’d figure out where I was gonna live and what I was gonna do. I had applied for teaching jobs at about 30 places, and I got not one reply. But then my first book came out, and it made a little bit of money. There was a movie sale. It allowed me to avoid making a decision. And 50 years came and went.
He’s 85, still in Montana, still writing, still fishing.
https://anglersjournal.com/people/a-conversation-with-thomas-mcguane/
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