>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, DC. >> Marie Arana: She's
known as a writer who captures the essential
American character, not just by chronicling their lives but by letting us see
deep into their souls. We see their hopes and their
disappointments, their flaws, their fears, and we do so amazingly, on a very highly granular
level, up close. Elizabeth's novels are
like shimmering necklaces, each chapter is a bead along
a continuum of related lives. And somehow she manages to weave
this incredible tapestry of lives, back into themselves,
in book after book. They are free of sentimentality,
they are without judgment. We see the bad and the good in
all, just as we might see the bad and the good in the
people that we love most. There are no villains
here, in Elizabeth's work. All are simply human, all have their
reasons, each has an intricate past. She's been called perceptive, deeply
empathetic, astonishingly forceful, one of America's most graceful
and grace-filled writers. She was born in Portland, Maine,
daughter of a science professor, I believe, and an English teacher. She grew up in Maine
and New Hampshire. She's been a writer,
she says, all her life, although she didn't publish her
first book until she was over 40, giving a lot of people hope here. She spent her early years
after college as a waitress, a working woman, a
law school graduate, witnessing some stark
realities about American life and the very apparent
hierarchies of class, the "haves" and the "have-nots." The ambitious and the vanquished,
the willful and the repentant, the leaders and the followers,
the cogs and the rebels. Somewhere along the way, because
she was a voracious reader, she acquired a keen eye
for economical language and the lyrical turn of phrase. A Strout sentence, you all know who have read her, can
contain a universe. She's given us a rich collection
of memorable books, each volume, another testimonial of her
perspective and her record of contemporary American life. You know them all: "Amy and
Isabelle" was her first, "Abide with Me," "Olive
Kitteridge," "The Burgess Boys," "My Name is Lucy Barton" and
now "Anything is Possible." For this she's won a Pulitzer Prize,
the Premio Bancarella among others as well as being a finalist for
many other prestigious awards. Thank you so much for
joining us, Liz. >> Elizabeth Strout: Thank you. >> Marie Arana: Pleasure
to have you. [ Applause ] Wonderful to have her with us. And I want to start by asking a
question that occurred to me just in looking at your book
and the dedications that you made in each of your books. And "Anything is possible" is
dedicated to your brother John. And "Olive Kitteridge" was dedicated
to your mother, who, you said, made life magical for you and was
the best story-teller you know. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: So
let's start there. I mean, how -- >>Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: How
did you learn this? And your family, tell us
a little bit about that. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. She's still the best
story-teller I know. Part of it is her affect. She's very much from Maine,
and her voice is very dry, and it doesn't rise or fall, and so she chooses her words
carefully and methodically. And she will just go different
places in the same tone of voice. And then it was just so
fascinating to grow up with that. And she did make things magical
for me, because as a child, she would always be observing other
people and making remarks about them that made me so interested in them. So it was very, always
interesting to be with my mother. >> Marie Arana: I'm interested
in what you say about the voice, because the fact that it was always
even and level, and tranquil. So many of your characters
are passionate and kind of off the wall a little bit. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. Right. >> Marie Arana: And delightfully
so, and wonderfully so. But the narration itself,
the way that you, the expanse of life before you when you read an Elizabeth Strout
book is very tranquil, actually. Is this, was this what
affected you about her? >> Elizabeth Strout: I
think it probably did. I mean, her voice is so much
a part of me and I also had, I lived on a dirt road with a number of elderly relatives,
my great-aunts. And they would sit and talk
in a similar kind of voice. And they would talk about
their husbands' last meals. That was like their
favorite discussion. And I can remember, you know,
my, I had an Aunt Olive. She was the nicest of them
actually, it's interesting. But anyway. I remember her saying, "Well, you know Frank had his mackerel
cooked the way he liked it." And you know this was
just what they did. And so this was the
music I grew up with. >> Marie Arana: And
then you went on. And you tell -- in this
wonderful issue, and I trust some of you saw it in the
Washington Post Book World. It's so wonderful to see Book World
in a standalone section, is it not? Thank you. Well, on the very first page
is this marvelous interview. And in it, of course, you
talk about your family. And you talk about your past. And you talk about the fact that
you came up as a young woman, not in the ordinary writer's path. I mean, you didn't do an MFA,
you didn't do, or, you know, start teaching, or whatever it is. Or go to work at a publishing house. You went to work as a waitress, I
think, in a textile job as well. You did a number of things. Tell us about that
portion of your life. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. It never, it never occurred
to me to get an MFA. I don't think I even
knew what they were. So, I was just trying to make money. >> Marie Arana: Right. >> Elizabeth Strout: And so the
first year after I left college, I worked at the college as a
secretary in the secretarial pool in the basement of
the office, you know, their office, the windowless
basement. And that alone was
interesting, because, you know, I went from having
relationships with the professors which were like, "Oh,
hi, how are you?" To just like, "Oh, here. Here's what I want typed." And it was just very interesting
for me to understand the difference between what it meant to be a
college student and what it meant to be these secretaries
that I worked alongside of. And their lives were very rich
and had all sorts of things to say to, you know, we all talked. But yet the professors
did not acknowledge them. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. >> Elizabeth Strout: And that was
a little interesting, you know. My very first ever, first
glimpse of like, mmm, I get it. I didn't get it. But, you know. >> Marie Arana: And then you
were a waitress for a while. >> Elizabeth Strout: For years. >> Marie Arana: A pub
in England, I think. Right? >> Elizabeth Strout: I
waitressed in every, not every, but almost every restaurant
in the East Coast. And I worked in a pub
in England for a year. Yep. Yep. >> Marie Arana: And
tell us about that. Because you, there's probably
no sort of no sort of, no sharper hierarchy than the
English language in England. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: And if you
speak it in a certain way, you immediately categorize
where you've been to school. What -- >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: Part
of the country you are. Even though it's a small island. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: England has many
divisions of course, as we know. And you said something
about, you know, the accents being dividing
and telling about. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. You know, by the end of the year
I began to understand, you know, began to hear the different
accents in a way that, you know, at first I didn't. And I also began to understand that people wondered
what class I came from. Because there I was working in
a pub, and yet I was American, so they couldn't really tell. And that very, in a vague
sense, because I was young, and you know, sort of stupid. But you know I was
understanding vaguely that they were trying
to figure out who I was. >> Marie Arana: Yeah. Yeah. And, of course, we don't
think we have class in America. Right? But as you very, very, very
well outlined in your essay we do. And -- >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: Tell us about your
feelings about that whole structure. >> Elizabeth Strout:
Well, a friend of mine who has taught working class studies
for many many years, we were talking about class, and he said that,
if we don't think of it in terms of economic situations,
or educational situations, but in fact who feels more
powerful or less powerful in terms of their life -- that was very
helpful for me to understand that, you know, there are
so many more people in the world now than
when I was born. I mean, in the country. And so there are, and the technology
has changed and everything, and so the information is
coming in different ways. And people are sort of in many ways
becoming narrower, but they're not, because everybody has
so much stuff in them. And yet, there's a tendency, I
think, to become one particular type that they may think
of themselves as. And if they do not feel that
they have power over their lives, then that reinforces itself
with other voices of the same. >> Marie Arana: Right. Right. And you, I'm struck
by the fact that once you say that in this essay,
all of your novels come into sharp relief somehow. Because I remember, of
course in "Amy and Isabelle," there was the whole question
of having lost an opportunity. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. Yeah, right. >> Marie Arana: Did you know
that you were writing about -- >> Elizabeth Strout: No, I did not. When I was writing "Amy and
Isabelle," which was my first book, and it took me years to write. But I thought that I was writing
about a woman who ended up working in the office room of a factory
because she thought she was better than the other people
that worked there. She thought that she
should have been a teacher. But she got pregnant very early on. And so she couldn't. And she always resented that. And throughout most of the book
she feels that she's superior to the women she was working with. And I didn't even understand
that I was writing about class. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. >> Elizabeth Strout: Until when
the book was nominated for a prize, and the judge said, "There
are some interesting issues about class in here." And I thought, oh! Yeah. And there were. >> Marie Arana: Right. Well, you phrased it so
interestingly in this essay, because you say that you
knew this without knowing. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: And
I love that phrase: to know something without
knowing it. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: What
do you mean by that? >> Elizabeth Strout:
Well, I think a lot of us live knowing
things without knowing it. And I think what I mean
by that is that we, our sense of something
is true, and deep, and yet we may lack the language
to therefore consciously know it. And in this way books help. I'm going to give a little
plug for literature here. Because, you know,
because when we read, if we read about somebody else's
life, it can help us recognize, oh no, I understand those feelings. >> Marie Arana: Yeah. >> Elizabeth Strout: Those
are feelings that I've had, and here they are articulated. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. >> Elizabeth Strout:
You know, perhaps. So, that's kind of what
I mean by knowing -- >> Marie Arana: Yeah >> Elizabeth Strout:
Without knowing. >> Marie Arana: Yeah. And, there's, I was reminded
because I scribbled as I was reading that essay, that I remember that
that sounded familiar to me. And I went back to "Olive
Kitteridge," and there's a place where a character says, "'You
get used to things,' he thinks, 'without getting used to things.'"
Which is sort of the opposite. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: But there's
a, there is that sense, and I feel it very much in your
writing, that people are sort of operating on a superficial level. But there is a deep, deep
human instinct beneath it that drives them. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. But that would be most people. >> Marie Arana: Yeah. >> Elizabeth Strout: You know. >> Marie Arana: Yeah, yeah. >> Elizabeth Strout: I mean,
that's most of our lives. I mean, we are walking
around, dealing with things, and yet we have our own internal
things that are privately ours. >> Marie Arana: Right. >> Elizabeth Strout: And very deep. Because they belong to us. They're who we are. And they can either
get expressed or not. And that's what interests me. >> Marie Arana: Well, one very
deep thing I think that many people in this room who are your readers,
knew instinctively and immediately when they read "Amy and Isabelle"
was that you understood something about the human condition that was
very connective and very appealing and somehow spoke truth
in a great way. Tell us a bit about how "Amy
and Isabelle," let's start at the beginning, happened. And how it came to you, and
why this mother and daughter and why this disappointment
of lost opportunity. How did that come? >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. You know, the book -- I understood,
the book started as as short story, because that's what I
was writing at the time. And nobody wanted it, naturally. So, but it kept not going away. It kept coming back. And then I finally realized,
"Okay, I'm going to write a novel," and that was, like, so, you
know, exciting and nervewracking. And so I began with Amy. I mean, I never write
from beginning to end. But I thought at first it
would be mostly Amy's story. And then I realized, no, no, no, no. This is both of their stories. And that's why's it's
called "Amy and Isabelle," because it's both their stories. So, and I realized the
mother's story was just as important as the
daughter's story. And toward the beginning
when I wrote the sentence, "but Isabelle had her own
story," then I realized, oh, I can do that, I can write that. And then I can tell that story. And so, but Isabelle was a little
bit difficult to figure out, You know, I had to
scratch around to find her. And I did understand that there
would be that punishment scene, where, you know, she
cuts the girl's hair off. And I did understand that it
would be for a sexual sin. But other than that
I didn't really know. So I had to earn my way to that. And then, once I got there, which
was like years later, I realized, "Oh, now I have to unravel
for another number of years." >> Marie Arana: It sounds
to me that you were, almost as you were
learning as you went. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: Yeah. And that you -- and
although, you know, obviously you'd been
writing forever. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: And
getting turned down, and rejections at the beginning. And then, "Olive Kitteridge"
comes along and you get, win the Pulitzer prize. But I have the feeling that what
you're saying, especially about "Amy and Isabelle," is that it was a just
kind of discovery as you went along. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. It was. And it always is. It always is. I never know what I'm
going to write, exactly. I have some, you know, sort
of sense, as I had that sense about the hair cutting scene. I thought, "Let's try and
earn our way to that." So I have a sense of something. And then, you know, find out all
sorts of things along the way. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. And how did Olive come to you? How did Olive Kitteridge come to
you?What a fabulous character. >> Elizabeth Strout: She came to me when I was unloading
the dishwasher one day. And I just, I always, I just saw
this really large woman, you know, tall, big woman standing
near a picnic table. And I have never owned
a picnic table, and my family has never
owned a picnic table. But I saw her standing
next to a picnic table, and I could hear her thinking,
"It's high time everyone left." And I thought, I better
get that down. So I did. So I got that down, and
then once I wrote that first story, well, it wasn't the
first story in the -- it was the story where she
steals her daughter-in-law's bra. Once I got that story down,
I realized, I'm going, I understood the form of
the book almost immediately, which is wonderful, because the
form of the book is everything. And so I understood that I was going
to do this in a series of stories that had Olive, but then I
realized she's an awful lot to take. You know, we don't
want her in every page. A little too much for
me and for the reader. And so, then I began to realize
she's a part of the community. Let's look at her from
different angles. Because what interests me
so much is how, you know, when we think we know someone. And we don't. We just know this part of them. And if you live in a town and you
see another part of that person -- you know, that was
very interesting to me. And so I began to, you know,
make the town around her. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. You made her a teacher. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: Like your parents. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: Is there
anything we can draw from that? Or you're just familiar
with teaching? >> Elizabeth Strout:
I just think was, I just was familiar with teaching. She's a math teacher --
nobody in my family was, you know, very good in math. But I, you know, a seventh grade
math teacher just seemed to be who she was as I envisioned
her bulk. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Now, speaking of her bulk. There was a movie made
of "Olive Kitteridge." I haven't seen it, I prefer
to stay with the book. How did, first of all, how
did you feel about the movie? >> Elizabeth Strout: I thought
they did a wonderful job. I really did. >> Marie Arana: She wasn't,
she didn't, from the pictures that I've seen of the movie, this was not the Olive Kitteridge
I had pictured in my mind. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. Well, I think Frances
Mcdormand's a pretty woman. >> Marie Arana: She is. >> Elizabeth Strout: And,
you know, my Olive is not, doesn't look like Frances. But I thought Frances did a
wonderful job creating her Olive. >> Marie Arana: So, you approve. >> Elizabeth Strout: I did. I really did. Yeah. Very much. >> Marie Arana: Did you
have anything to do with it? >> Elizabeth Strout: No. >> Marie Arana: No, no. Okay. >> Elizabeth Strout: I mean, I had,
you know, I had many conversations with Frances about Olive. And then I spoke to the
screen director for, I mean, the screen writer for, you know,
an hour and a half one day. And then I spoke to the
director for an hour and a half one day, and that was it. >> Marie Arana: So, you
win the Pulitzer Prize. You've had this tremendous
trajectory from, you know, rejection to that. What happens after you
win the Pulitzer Prize? Are you, did you say,
"Well, that's it"? And you know "Now I'm going to
write what I want to write"? Or, do you say, "Oh God, now I have to write something
that's better than that"? Or, "God, will I ever be able to
write anything like that again?" Could you tell us a little
bit about how you felt? >> Elizabeth Strout: You know, I was just shredding some
old journals the other day. And I found a line
that I had written. And it said, "I won
the Pulitzer Prize, and this seems to impress people." [ Laughter ] >> Marie Arana: Did it
impress your mother? >> Elizabeth Strout: I don't know. I mean, it think it must have. How would you know? You know, I assume it did. I really don't know. Must have. But that was, that's, it was
funny to come across that, you know, as my response. But anyway. I think I won it late
enough that it, you know, I have always had a sense of
responsibility to my reader. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. >> Elizabeth Strout: I think
about my reader as I work. And it's like we're
involved in dance together. So, that didn't change. I have more readers as a
result of winning the prize. But my level of respect for the
reader and need, my need to, you know, hold up my end of
the bargain, hasn't changed. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. >> Elizabeth Strout: So, I think,
you know, that was always there. So it's still there. >> Marie Arana: Writing
is a lonely business. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: And reading
is a lonely business. I mean, basically you've got
to do these things alone. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: So,
well, who is the writer? Or the reader, excuse me,
that you're writing for? >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: Who is that person? >> Elizabeth Strout:
Well, I make one up. I make up an ideal reader. And, you know, I figure
I can make up characters, I can make up an ideal reader. So I do. And I have, it's not,
it's actually not male or female. But it's a person who
probably needs my book. And, but they, but they're
asking for, they're patient, but they're not too
patient, and they're willing to maybe cut me a couple
of little mistakes. But that's it. I need to be delivering
to them truthfully. And they will receive
it on that level. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. Tell us about "Anything
is Possible." I love that title. Number one, where does it come? But number two, it is a sort of
this rich stew of lots of, well, all your books have lots of people, and lots of emotions
and points of view. But "Anything is Possible"
seems to me to be the most stew-y
book that you've written. >> Elizabeth Strout: There we go. >> Marie Arana: You know,
that there is, the narrative, you could almost break off those
chapters and they would be novellas of their own or short
stories of their own. I feel that a little bit
about all of your books. But never so much as this book. It is, it's a wonderful creation. It is sort of a great
view of American humanity. Tell us about your
writing of this book. >> Elizabeth Strout: Well, I really
started the book at the same time that I was writing "My
Name is Lucy Barton." Because, when I was listening to,
or writing the different scenes of the mother and the daughter
talking about the people from her past, I became
curious about those people. And I thought, well, you know, what happened to those
pretty Nicely girls? >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. >> Elizabeth Strout: Oh,
well let's think about that. And, you know, I would
scribble down some scenes. And I would think, what
happened to Mississippi Mary? And so I would scribble
down some scenes. And then I realized by the
time I was done writing "My Name is Lucy Barton,"
I realized, "Oh, I'm going to have a
book of these people." >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. >> Elizabeth Strout: And so,
that's where it came from. >> Marie Arana: That's
what happened. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: You make
it sound as if as a writer, you're constantly having
a dialogue with yourself. Is that true? Is that, are you constantly
sort of -- >> Elizabeth Strout: I guess I am. >> Marie Arana: Yeah. Okay. Which leads me to the
next question, which is, you're constantly having
a dialogue with yourself. You're creating this
wonderful cast of characters. To what extent -- you know, I think Freud said everything
that you dream is you. So, whatever nasty villain you
have there, or whatever, you know, fabulous moment, it's all you. Are these characters all you? >> Elizabeth Strout:
You know, I mean, yes. To a certain extent they have to be. Because, first of all,
I'm the only person that I know, if I even know that. Which is questionable. But, you know, so there,
the core emotion. There has to be a kernel of
something that I understand to be true in every person. Even though I'm not them. I'm not Pete Barton. I'm not Tommy, you know. But I have to understand some
kernel of truth about them, from the inside, in order to write. So, you know, in that sense,
they're all pieces of me. Yeah. >> Marie Arana: Yeah. Yeah. Well, there are, there's obviously a rich
trove within Elizabeth Trout. You said something
in another interview, I think it was with the Guardian. And you said, "What has
always fascinated me most was, what does it feel like
to be another person?" >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: And now, you've
just said, that you wanted to know what happened to
the pretty Nicely girls. And that prompted you
to write something else. So, but that sense of empathy,
that, what does it feel like to be another person? What does it feel like
to be that person who is not a very nice person? >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> Marie Arana: Or, that person
who is, you know, is such a softy and should have a better spine. Where does that come from? And tell us your feelings about it. >> Elizabeth Strout: You know,
I don't know where it came from, but I do remember at a very young
age recognizing that I would only, that all of us would only see
this world through our own eyes. And that was a little
upsetting for me. Because I wanted to
know what it would feel like to be another person,
even for five minutes. I just thought, "What does
it feel like to be you know, my Aunt Olive talking about
her husband's last meal?" And I just would never know. And so I do remember at a very
young age, wanting to know and that's never, ever left me. And the frustration of
that has never left me. And that's such a motivating
force behind my work. Because I want to know what
it's like to be another person. And I have to accept that we
won't know, but I think, you know, I remember when I was young,
also, I remember reading in a book and I remember thinking,
"Oh, I've had that thought. You know, I didn't know
anybody else had that thought." And I can't even remember
what the thought was. But I remember the feeling of
reading a book, and recognizing that somebody else had had a thought that seemed private enough I
didn't know somebody else had it. And I realized, "Oh, you
know, literature can do this." >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Your characters all
have a, either they feel they, they feel a oneness of character,
or they are flawed in some way. And we know it, and they know it. You're very interested in character. Last night at the festival gala
for the authors that was held at the Library of Congress,
David McCullough said, "You know, there is such a thing as
the American character. There is such a thing,
and we're taught it. We don't know we're
learning it, but we all sit at our parents' dinner table. We sit with our own
children at the dinner table, and that thing is given like a black box." You're interested in character. Do you think we have
an American character? Do you think that there is, do
you think we can hold on to that? >> Elizabeth Strout: I think, yes, I do think that we have
an American character. I think -- that's interesting. Yeah, we do. We're Americans. That means something. It means many different things. But it means something to Americans,
that it means something -- so I do think that we
have American characters. And I don't know if
we can hold onto it. I don't know, I mean, I just don't
know the way the world is shifting how much, that's the answer to that. >> Marie Arana: The big question. It's the big question. Tell us a little bit
about how you work. Are you disciplined? Do you write as the muse hits you? Or you sit down every day and pound
some words out and see how it goes? How do you write? >> Elizabeth Strout: I don't wait
for the muse to show up, you know. Because it doesn't show
up that frequently. So, I -- it's my job, so I sit down,
I try and sit down, you know, every, I mean, theoretically, I try and sit
down every morning, as soon as I, you know, get my husband
out of the house. And, or else I"ll leave the
house and go [inaudible]. But, so I try and write every day. It's my job. It's just what I do. And so whether I feel like it or not
is not relevant, because people go to their jobs whether
they feel like it or not. So I sit down and I work. And some days it's good,
and some days it's not. Just like a lot of jobs. >> Marie Arana: So it's a
full eight-hour obligation. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. Only, I think, you know, if
I'm really into something, then I'm thinking about
it almost all the time. >> Marie Arana: Do you
look for distractions? >> Elizabeth Strout: No. >> Marie Arana: No. Good. Keep writing. It's time for your questions. So, please think of some
questions and come to the mics here and ask Liz Strout
what you'd like to know about her work and how she does it. Step right up, please. And I will ask one more question,
which is, this sense of work that you just described,
this discipline, did that come from your parents? Did that come from yourself? Did that come from the law school? >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Marie Arana: Where
did that come from? >> Elizabeth Strout: It
probably came from my parents. My parents were very hard workers. My brother has been
a very hard worker, and I have always been
a very hard worker. It's just what we were
brought up -- to work hard. >> Marie Arana: Mm-hmm. >> Elizabeth Strout:
That's what we did. >> Marie Arana: Are you
working on another book? >> Elizabeth Strout: I am. >> Marie Arana: Wonderful. Is it characters that
we can be told about? >> Elizabeth Strout:
I can't tell you. >> Marie Arana: Okay. >> Elizabeth Strout: Sorry. >> Marie Arana: Okay. Good enough. >> Elizabeth Strout: I
would love to tell you. >> Marie Arana: Good enough. Well, you will eventually. You will eventually. Let's start over here, please. >> Hi. This is not so much a
question, but just a thank you. My husband and I, usually when
we go on vacation, we pick a book to read together so that
have something to talk about. Not that we don't have
other things to talk about. >> Elizabeth Strout:
No, I understand. >> But a few years ago we
chose "The Burgess Boys," and we both really liked it. He's a graduate of Bates
also, so that made him, you know, want to read it. But we just had such a good
time, and it's still something -- >> Elizabeth Strout: So glad. >> That sometimes it will
come up in conversation. "Oh, that reminds me of that book." >> Elizabeth Strout: I'm
so glad to hear that. >> So it really touched both of us. >> Elizabeth Strout: I'm
very glad to hear that. Thank you so much for
telling me that. That's wonderful to hear. Really. >> Marie Arana: Next. >> Elizabeth Strout: Thank you. >> I really liked the question
you asked about the title of "Anything is Possible,"
because I love the book. Also, really love the title, so -- >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. And I never got around
to answering that. Right. Right. And the title came
because of the last story. And really the last sentence,
which I did not write at the last. I mean, I wrote that
earlier, because I don't write from beginning to end, ever. And so, I had written that
phrase earlier, or that scene, or played with that scene. And that phrase "anything is
possible" stayed in my mind. Because I understood it would
be in that final sentence. Whatever form that
sentence was, I thought, "That's really what this is about." And so, that was the
title of the book. And then, you know, it worried me
a little bit, because I thought, "Well, it's not a truthful thing." But it is, in terms of this book. Anything is possible
in terms of, you know, the moments of grace
that people can receive. It's not literally true, obviously. You know, but thank you. >> Marie Arana: Thank you. Over here, please. >> Yeah. I'd be curious to
know if you have a character that still haunts you, or
one that's your favorite? >> Elizabeth Strout: I have a number
of characters that are my favorite. And one of my favorite
characters is in this book, Charlie Macauley, who
went to Vietnam. I have no idea why this man has
affected me in a particular way. And so, he's my current
favorite because, you know, whatever is most recent
stays with me. And yeah. And Abel Blaine,
I love him, and Dottie. You know, but that's
all in this book. And I do have, I mean. You know what, I just love them all. That's the truth. Anybody I wrote about, I really do. >> Marie Arana: The naughty
ones and the good ones. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah, yeah. But thank you. >> Marie Arana: Thank you. >> Hi. So I have a question about
Olive Kitteridge, her character. I read the book at a time when we
had recently discovered someone in our family had borderline
personality, and it explained so much about her behavior. And I wondered if that was some --
and Olive just rang so true to me. And I wondered if that was something
that had occurred to you, if, as you were writing her, or not? >> Elizabeth Strout: No. It hadn't. But you're not the first
person who's brought that up. I mean, Olive's been diagnosed with
a number of psychiatric issues. And one time when I went to
a book club, this woman said to me afterwards, "Well, it
was interesting to meet you. I thought we were going to have to
have dinner with a real depressive." So, I mean, it was an
Olive Kitteridge book club, but so, you know, whatever. But, no. But you're
not the first one. So she's, you know. I'm glad that she -- >> I just felt like, I get her! Olive is so hard to deal with,
but I felt like I get it, because you know, working
through that. >> Elizabeth Strout:
Right, well, yeah. Good. >> Marie Arana: Thank you. Next question. >> "My Name is Lucy Barton"
felt to me like a memoir. So, I was surprised to
read about your upbringing. How in the world did
you enter that world? >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. And I meant it be like
a faux memoir. I mean, I meant this to
be Lucy Barton's memoir. But, how did I enter
that world when it was so different from my childhood? You know, I understood
her background somehow. I just began to really
understand it. And I went to school with a boy
-- I mention this in the essay. I went to school with a boy who
was from that kind of background. And every rural town that I've
ever known has had a family like Lucy's that's just so poor, and so odd that they're
ostracized by everybody. And there was a family
like that in my hometown. And this boy never spoke. He never spoke. And nobody ever spoke to him. And one day, the third grade
teacher said to him, "You're, you have dirt behind your ears. Nobody's too poor to
buy a bar of soap." And that kid got so red. And I always remembered that. And I had a sense of what
his house looked like, because I would go
by it every so often. But anyway, so that's how I did it. I don't know how I did it. But I entered into that world
and brought her through. Thank you. >> Marie Arana: Thank
you for the question. Next one, please. >> Hi. Good morning. My question is, during
the talk you mentioned that you shred some
of your journals. And I was just curious, why would, why did you shred your,
some of your journals? >> Elizabeth Strout:
Because they're so foolish. They're just, they're
so worth shredding. >> Thank you. >> Elizabeth Strout: It's just,
you know, one stream, whatever. Thank you. But, I mean, because I did. >> Marie Arana: Thank
you for the question. Over here, please. >> Hi, Elizabeth. I'm from Maine. >> Elizabeth Strout: Oh. Where? >> Portland, and we have
a house in Islesboro now. One of the things that I think
you really get right, as a Mainer, is just the frugality
of all the Mainers. And I just wanted to, I think
it was in "The Burgess Boys." A brother comes home
to visit the sister. And the house is 50 degrees. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> Which is a thing. >> Elizabeth Strout: Yeah. >> And then one of the themes ithat
I see in your books is the person in the family who's gotten away -- >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> And made it, and then comes back. In "Lucy Barton," there's
some really vivid scenes. Can you talk a little
bit about that? >> Elizabeth Strout: You know. I think that, and also like Jim
Burgess -- he's made it, supposedly, and then he comes back
and stumbles around. And I think that, it's just
any dichotomy that you can get on the page is interesting. And I did come from
a very small town, and I did end up living
in New York City. So that is a think that I am
familiar with: the change of going from an environment like
the kind I grew up in and then living in New York. So that's interesting
to me personally because I've experienced it. But I think that, you know,
sometimes people talk about hose that have been trapped at
home, or have stayed at home. And I don't think of them as
trapped, or staying at home. I think that's simply the life. Like, you know, for
example, Susan Burgess. I always remember this woman in
New York City, she said to me, "Why didn't Susan just leave?" And it was so interesting to
me that she would ask that, because why would Susan leave? It's her home. Why in the world would she leave? So, the New York person
didn't understand that, and I found that interesting, you
know, for a number of reasons. But Susan lives her life. She's not trapped anymore than
anybody is, whether they're living in New York, or Shirley
Falls, you see. So, that's also interesting
to me, you know? >> And then the person who
gets away and makes it, doesn't really get away and make it. >> Elizabeth Strout: No. Because nobody does. >> Marie Arana: We only have
time for one more question. So. >> Hi. I love your work. Thank you for coming here today. I was wondering, you
spoke to the fact that you don't ever write
from beginning to end. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> And I was wondering, and
it's kind of a two-parter, if you could speak a little
bit about when you know -- how the process comes about of
putting the pieces together, and whether you know the
end at the beginning, or where the end comes
to you, and how you -- >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. >> I'm a nonlinear writer,
and I was trying to figure out how you get those pieces. >> Elizabeth Strout: Right. You know, I'll write in scenes. Every day I just create
different scenes. And after a while I'll begin to see
that they'll connect in some way. And so, whether it's
a story, or a novel, I will understand the connection
between the scenes that have -- the scenes have to
have a pulse to them. They have to be living. And if they do, then they
will begin to connect. That's why I never worry
about plot, because that's so artificially placed
onto something. But if it arrives, you know, from
the work itself, and so I will begin to recognize the connection
between things. And then at some point, I
do have to think, "Okay, now where am I going to start?" And then I'll start to
pull it together, you know, with as tight a thread as possible. And then, the ending. You know, I will have probably
already written the ending. And with the last page of
Olive Kitteridge, you know, I wrote that way before I
wrote the story, that it ended, and I just wrote that last
page, and it just came to me, and I wrote at the top,
"End," question mark. And thank God I didn't lose it. Because I easily could have. You know, I'm really
very messy, as a writer, and I could have lost
it, but I didn't. And so as I was writing
that final story, I thought, "Wait a minute, I have
the end of this." And I did! >> Great. Thank you very much. >> Marie Arana: Thank
you, thank you. And, unfortunately -- [ Applause ] Speaking of endings,
I just want to say, Liz is going to be
signing her books at 11:30. Please go and meet her
in person, and sign, have her books signed for you. Thank you Liz for coming. >> Elizabeth Strout: Thank you. >> Marie Arana: It's been wonderful. You're terrific. >> Elizabeth Strout: Thank you. >> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress. Visit us at LOC.gov.
