Tom Robbins and I do not agree. It would seem his work is made for me, but I tried and failed in my teens to read his novels, and I walked out on Gus Van Sant’s god-awful adaptation of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Robbins talked to Rob Liguori of the New York Times Magazine in connection with the release of the novelist’s first memoir. Here are two exchanges about other writers:

“Question:

You’re often identified as a literary representative of the counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s, along the lines of Hunter S. Thompson.

Tom Robbins:

Once I’m gone, I don’t think I’ll care, but I don’t see Hunter that way at all. For one thing, I don’t think Hunter ever had a genuine LSD trip in his life. He took other drugs at the same time and washed it down with various libations, so he was never a guest in the spiritual dimension that LSD seems to open up for people who take it — well, I don’t want to say responsibly — but who take it under what I consider the right conditions.

Question:

Philip Roth retired a few years ago, and he keeps a Post-it note on his computer that says, ‘The struggle with writing is over.’ Can you relate to that?

Tom Robbins:

Not at all. Even though it can sometimes take me an hour to write a sentence that I’m happy with, I’ve never considered it a struggle.”