Artists have been making a killing on oversaturation: Pretty things have their place--I'm sure JT LeRoy would agree--but in a world of swirling images, big colors, emotional manipulations, music with more beeps than beats, and books with more style than substance, it's hard to have a genuine reaction to anything. In my opinion, nothing has suffered more from oversaturation than modern literature. Today's literary heavyweights are more exhausting or maudlin than relevant, shoving their excessively violent and oh-so-shocking stories down readers throats with an extra helping of the authors' incredible vocabularies. It seems, more often than not, that ego triumphs over the subtletly of craft.

And then there is JT LeRoy.

The story he has to tell you is the most gruesome and troubling you'll ever hear. There is nothing subtle or pretty about his life, which is the basis of his first novel, Sarah, and yet his writing reads like a gentle love song. His prose is almost protective of the reader; he doesn't want to hurt you, just get you to listen. There are no brutally depicted scenes of violence, or play-by-play retellings of sexual encounters. Instead readers feel like LeRoy is occasionally covering their ears and spelling out the word "blowjob" over their heads.

Many of your fans identify themselves by wearing the raccoon penis bone necklaces, which are for sale on your website. In your writing, the necklaces held such a precious and important distinction. How do you feel about them becoming commercialized?

My essence is in my work and I think folks know that. I wouldn't have the bones for sale on my web site if I had a problem with it.

You've done a lot of other projects outside of your novels, such as your work with Gus Van Sant and your band. Premiere Magazine called you, "Hot Hollywood property." Where does your literary work fall in with all these other projects? Does it hold top priority? Do you consider yourself a true novelist, or was that the entrance into all these other forms of expression?

I do consider myself a true novelist, and I love artists, creating, exploring. I am incredibly moved by creation of any kind. It's reciprocal. That's why these relationships form. They come about in a real organic manner. After the very incredible writer Bruce Benderson did a story on me for NY Press, they started me doin' writing for them, interviewing folks I liked. I was always very into music, as was my mother, so it was swell to get to talk to folks I was in awe of. Some of them we just struck up a connection. When Sarah was in manuscript they asked to read it, that's what happened with Suzanne Vega. She wrote sayin' she would support me in any way to help get my book out there. When they wanted me to do readings round it, I told them I can't do readings, Mary Gaitskill offered to read for me coz she knew I just could not. I would throw up. We asked Suzanne Vega and it all just started from there.

Americans tend to watch TV, not read books, they aren't so adventures with books, so when a musician takes your back, and tells folks about a book, it is just tremendous. When Bono talked about my books in Rolling Stone Magazine that was massive. It is great to hear my words read in different voices, I learn much more then when I say them. I've done some readings since, in Europe, in New York and in L.A. We did a reading in NY is a benefit for the adolescent unit here in SF, The McAuley Program, run by Dr. Terrence Owens, the therapist that got me writing in the first place. He saved my life. No doubt about it. Danielle Steele donated $20,000 to it, as well. Fucking great. It is the only one for kids that need inpatient treatment like that.

They always need stuff; Shirley Manson donated all these signed records and posters from all kinds of bands, like from Metallica. Kids there earn them, this girl started working the program because she wanted to get the Metallica signed poster, she opened up and became reachable. Most programs don't have the time or resources to bother to find what will open a kid. It is like picking a lock. Dr. Owens had the saint like patience to try to reach me and not a day goes by that I don't thank God for him. I have become close with a lot of my heroes. Sometimes it will strike me, "Jesus, I am talking to Billy fucking Corgan!" The funny thing is how they become separate from their art, their craft. They are just a really swell friend. But when I see them in action, like when I saw Billy Corgan or Shirley Manson on stage, or Asia Argento in action, the awe is there again, as it should be, watching any genius as they work.

Your newest work, Harold's End, is an illustrated novella, correct? How do you collaborate with the artist and the artwork? Will you discuss the relationship between the images and your written work?

Harold's End is a story that I originally wrote for McSweeney's. I worked very intensely on it with Dave Eggers. Then it was published as a novella in Italy by Fazi Editore, they even have t-shirts. I have worked on it now for this book with Zoetrope editor Michael Ray. I knew it had more to offer. I had been approached about doing it as a movie but I didn't want that. Then Last Gasp publishers, the ones who publish R. Crumb, contacted me about doing an illustrated novel. I had just gotten a copy of Oyster, an Australian magazine that I write for and in it, there was an article about this artist, Cherry Hood. Just check out her work and you will see we were made to work together. We plan to do other books together. We were made for each other. And all of a sudden you feel that recognition, like we must be related? It was like that. I looked at this picture and it was like every hair on my arm, on my body stood up. It was like my long lost being. And the fact that we found each other just reinforces to me certain spiritual principles I hold to be true and self-evident, uh, when I am not in my crap. When I can step out of my head and connect with that. Wondrous lady, too. Oh it's gonna be good.

Do you get frustrated with a lot of the articles written about you that focus on your past, idiosyncrasies, young age, and famous friends more than your actual prowess as a writer? Do you feel like the press sees you as an interesting character more than literary force?

I would like it to be about the work. I am part of my work, so I enter into it somewhat, but I try to move folks away from focusing in on me, that is a design for disappointment. I am figuring out who I am and what I want to do, all the time. I don't want to be held to any static identity and our culture has a neurotic need to label artists. I ain't nobody's butterfly to be labeled in a box, not yet. I do like to create community, and help get valuable voices out there. That's one reason I so love Dave Eggers. That is what he dedicates himself to. Andy Warhol had that goin' there for a bit too. I know what it is not to be heard

I want to help others get heard too. I can most effectively do that by creating community and moving the fuck out of the way.

Where do you go now? Can you continue to write on themes of your past? What will be your next literary move? Will you take a new thematic direction? Or is it more important for you to get out a dialogue on what you've gone through in your life?

I envy writers who sit down and say "I'm going to write a book about a man and a woman and they do whatever" and then they write it. I can't do that. I have my obsessions. For novels I still have stuff to vomit, so to speak. When I run out, maybe I'll have to tell the love story on the banks of a snowy lake in Minnesota or whatever, but in the meantime, I'm still not done. I can work outside my direct experience, I did so with Elephant and that film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. I think there is a lot of humor in my work, and I plan to follow that more. I think writers have their essence, like cooks. I've noticed that people who cook, all of their food has a distinctive flavor, even if they use different spices. And it's like that with a writer.