SOURCE: "A Leaner and Meaner Mark Leyner," in The Bloomsbury Review, Vol. 13, No. 4, July-August, 1993, pp. 5-7.

In the interview below, Leyner discusses his literary influences and preferences, his research sources, and his thoughts on the writing process.

So daunting is the mythic image author Mark Leyner—rhymes with complainer—paints of himself in his latest literary exploit, Et Tu, Babe, that the prospect of encountering him might have sent shivers through lesser mortals. Instead, the diminutive, albeit muscular, fellow who greeted us at the door of his temporary lodgings on the edge of the University of Colorado campus turned out to be one regular guy—within carefully controlled limits. The blue jeans, Oakland Athletics T-shirt, and ostentatious cowboy boots he sported had a premeditatedly unpremeditated quality, the hallmark of his ever-slippery literary libertarianism.

Notably absent were any remnants of Team Leyner, that fictious squad of devoted underlings dedicated...