Kirman: Have you ever found that people's perceptions of you as a writer is affected by the fact you are so recognizable from television? Do people take you more or less seriously because of pre-conceived notions they might have of you?
Gilmour: I think that people tend to take you more seriously than they should if you're on television, period. Television gives you a veil of legitimacy, even if it's just the weather that you're doing. People somehow defer to you. It can be very unhealthy. It can start to make you feel like you're special; we're all special and that's all fine but we're also equally special. Being on television and being recognized on the street and being given good tables can start to make you feel more special after a while. I've left television before and when you leave television it's like a mild heroin withdrawal and you think "Oh, what is this sensation I'm feeling now," which is that people stop recognizing you and they start treating you like everyone else, which is fine because you are like everyone else, but there is a kind of unhealthy attention you get from being on television and recognized.
Sometimes it makes me uncomfortable the fact that I can feel it's an eclipse but I know it's good for me, I know that it's good for my soul, I know that I should stay away from television too. I know that I should not go near television for at least a couple of years. I know that that's not the answer. I know that's like somebody who breaks up with their girlfriend and running out and getting another one immediately instead of spending six months contemplating why that last one came to an end. I don't know what I am going to do with my future but I know that television and novel writing and a brand new girlfriend are all dead ends. I've actually got to find something new and fresh that I haven't done before. So I am kind of sitting here, standing in the middle of my room just thinking, "well, I am just going stay here until it goes by."
Kirman: What is your personal process of writing like? Do you have to be in a certain mood or do it at a certain time of day?
Gilmour: I'm a very disciplined writer. I get up in the morning and I go straight to the computer and I usually work until about noon, then I go to the gym, and then I have a tuna sandwich, then I read Chekhov, then I have a nap, then I make dinner, then I usually hang around with my ex-wives -- so I really only write about two or two and a half hours a day, but as you know, if you write two or two and half hours a day after months and years, that accumulates into a gigantic amount of work. So I would really say I probably only write two or two and a half hours a day but I feel like that's full time writing. Anyone who says they are writing more than that is usually lying or they're hacks because fresh, fresh, concentrated new on the page work -- you can't do more than two, two and a half hours a day.
