Unabridged: Ann Patchett

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] originally last year in planetarium which align and make your own so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] everybody's been named one of the 100 most ambassador's in Nashville with her husband Carl Van Deventer and their dog Sparky humans appear to be our group to partner with the Carmichael bookstore thank you so much for playing the socialistic interesting please join me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let me tell you why you should donate to your library because chances are everybody here can afford to buy a book so the reason that you donate to your [Applause] libraries in visit or even in libraries synagogues and churches I have a different pitch parole I'm gonna do something a little different tonight and that is I'm gonna make a talk about not about attached house effect around the dutch pass this book is now and it is let me tell you as an author it is the loveliest thing in the world to be interviewed it's just it's easy it's relaxing nothing is your responsibility if the person who's interviewing you is awful it doesn't matter because people will walk out of there saying you just you don't have to prepare it's super but if you are the person who is interviewing the author it is a huge amount of work so I'm going to tell you two things that are in direct conflict with one another and they are both true if you're the person who is interviewing the author you have to read the book usually twice and be smart and it's a little bit like if you've ever made a huge dinner that your family comes in and they say that was great and then that's it's a huge amount of work and there's not an enormous amount of return now since I had their calendar of Parnassus books I have three jobs I'm a writer seller and now I'm the famous author because there are none people who will only come to the store on the condition that Ann Patchett will interview them so I'm constantly doing this huge amount of work and preparation and on the end I'm complaining competitor right is equally true that it is a magnificent opportunity to think deeply about people's work to meet interesting people to talk to them so I'm simultaneously very lucky and very unlucky that I have to do all of this but I knew when I was putting this together hypothesis 31 days and I imagined my publicist calling 31 those doors and saying find 31 people to interview am passionate on stage and those 31 people having to spend days and days doing the work to put the program together I just didn't want to do that you can either be part of the solution part of the problem to be part of the solution so that's the other reason that I'm doing this talk the third reason that I am doing this talk is that I am doing what I always want to do more than anything which is recommend books and talk about books so don't get your phone out don't go for a piece of paper when I'm done you can go to my website and watch it calm and there is going to be a little link that says vocalist so every book I mentioned tonight is going to be listed on the list if you decide who are interested in reading any of those books please do not order them from Amazon and do not order them from Parnassus order them [Applause] all right so we're in Astoria in Asturias when the amazing people that I have interviewed because I am such a famous author interviewer that I not only interview people of Parnassus I am now asked to go to bigger cities all the time to interview other famous people more famous fathers and we've been open for almost eight years one of the first people that I interviewed after we opened was JK Rowling's when she was on her book tour her cash flow vacancy she did one stop in America and he was at Lincoln Center and I was interviewing her so was not particularly thirty-one and one of the wonderful things about interviewing people is that you get to read the book of work anyone else so when I was asked to interview her a human being who worked at Brown in New York City flew the manuscript in just a chunk of paper to Nashville came to my house made me sign all of these waivers and non-disclosure forms left the book for me and three days later flew back from New York to pick up the manuscript because of course everyone knows in Kentucky so what was so great about this experience is I loved this book I read this book almost eight years ago and probably a week hasn't gone by that I haven't thought of it book horrible reviews practically no one read it the people that I talked to who did said oh I started that I didn't like it I didn't finish it which I think had to do with reviews which had to do in the fact that Harry Potter know has gotten great reviews and everybody at the New York Times has been sharpening their knives all of those years waiting to get her rolling a really bad review and this was an amazing book and that is why she then went on to publish under a pseudonym which nobody knew about until her lawyers wife told her girlfriend that Robert Paul Briggs was actually one of the great things about interviewing people is you get to set the tone of the evening this is an amazing memoir which by the way if you think I'm a Pollyanna because I keep saying I love this book I love this book I love this person I interviewed other people I'm talking about very few it's very serious it is a memoir about Roxane gay who apply box engage she was raped as a child and then dealt with a problem of enormous obesity all throughout her life afterwards and people's judgement about her weight and not understanding it and I'm going to interview her and this is serious and it's a big auditorium and Vanderbilt and it is packed with people who were there for a very important serious towner of an evening I sit down with Ross had game the first thing I said to her was so I hear you really and an HDTV it was like the best moment of my interview life because she was so happy every single night she is an icon about tomorrow and having to answer questions about being raped and being obese and we talked about tiny houses and their property brothers and we talked about the power to but everybody in the audience cheering they're so excited and she was magnificent Mike Shea bought one of my very favorite authors and one of my favorite people to interview and I like to put this in because often people think that people who are famous philosophers are probably snobs and Mike Aylott is the nicest guy in the world and this was another book by a really nice guy Tom Hanks story so probably every book that has published in this country descend to my house or to my bro story sometimes I get up to five copies of one book everybody wants me to read the book that is coming out they want me to blurb it they want me to review it they want me to interview the author they want me to dust it with fair I probably have five copies of this book in my office and I thought I'm not gonna read a book of short stories by movie star that's crazy why would I do that one night at 9 o'clock at night finished the novel that I was reading I wanted to read just a little bit more apartment to bed I went into my office I was looking for something whatever I want to read next I'll because stories and it was fantastic it's an amazing book there exactly this room stories you would think Tom Hanks would write there are old-fashioned they are incredibly well-crafted they are smart and entertaining and I loved it so I've lured the book which means I wrote a little code on the back and a month later I had a call from his publisher and they said would you come to Washington and interviewed Tom on stage I said I don't know what would be in it for me 600 signed first editions because of Parnassus first editions come JK Rowling to and so then I can send them out to my subscribers I had a fantastic time when Tom Hanks and I were going on stage he said the person who was organizing the event how long can we stay on stage and they said oh you know these programs last an hour and he said yeah huh and we don't want to get offstage and she said you can stay on stage as long as you want me staying on stage for two and a half that was the best ticket anybody ever bought in DC okay the person who changed my life as an interviewer was Alan Alda who wrote the absolutely terribly understood you as you know Alan three years have shown on Noah about science and when she interviewed scientists and he tells the story in the book and while we were on stage the fact that he is such a prepared Triple A student that he would do all of his research and write all of his questions on note cards and then he would go and he would interview the scientists and he would ask his first important question as scientists would answer whatever and then he would ask his next important question and the scientist answer his question and then he realized very early on that he was a terrible interviewer because he wasn't listening because he wasn't present and this is really a problem when when I've done this all the time if you're prepared and you have their note cards and your questions you're not thinking about what the person is saying you're waiting until you can ask your next question and you're kind of very discreetly trying to go through your deck cards to get my next question and he says what you've got a dude you could is do all of your research right there are estimates throw them away and come onstage with nothing so that you can really be emotionally present and so ever since I interviewed Alan Alda I have interviewed people with what I call the Alda method and it means that it's 10 times more work because you're really flying without a net and it's scary and it takes enormous preparation and concentration but it makes for a much better interview because as you know Gary Norris is the copy editor of The New Yorker magazine and she wrote a book called between you and me confessions of a comic weaned this is the follow-up Greek to me and it is about her memoir deciding in the middle of her life that she was going to learn ancient Greek now as I'm sure you all know in Nashville we have the paramon in the middle of our city with Athena an old leafed statue that is the largest indoor statue in the world I interviewed Mary Norris about learning Greek in the parts of mud at the feet of Athena and she probably the whole interview and it was sometimes but sometimes a person wants an interviewer on stage but they don't need you there in the same way that they keep a little goat in the stall with the rest force just to keep them calm and reviewed heard the Symphony Hall 2,800 seats every single woman and I do need to tell you there were only women there every single one of them was wearing a dress for Gregor James all I had to do was put on Americans actually grant you an interview at the same time fancy dress and high heels and I said hey and she was and she talked for an hour and she's from there have the audience for her cousins they had a great it was wonderful reprisal I probably interviewed her four times this is her memoir about her years in chroming magazine when she was the editor I wrote for Gourmet magazine when Ruth was there for ten years actually in the book so I especially like to hear this one Melinda Gates this is very interesting all right friends raise your hand how many people are in this book you're a little better than most cities this is exactly the kind of book I never would have read and I don't know why I don't know if it's a matter of when it's this kind of a nonfiction book and you read about it in the paper and you hear on television you hear on the radio you sort of feel like you've read the book without reading it but her people called the bookstore and they said if animal agreed to interview and Melinda Gates she will come to Nashville why does Melinda Gates care whether or not I interviewed her because on bill and Melinda's last wedding anniversary they read my book this is the story of a happy marriage out loud to each other yeah I'll interview eliminates I got so much out of it Melinda Gates is Joan of Arc basically and one of the gates foundation is doing you may think you know if you're doing trouble yourself to read the book it is so well done and today while I was driving from Lexington to Louisville I listened to Alan Aldous podcast his a podcast called clear and vivid and he interviews Melinda Gates for the podcast right this is also another great story so Alan has been following Melinda Gates as tourists schedule he sees her schedule if I'm interviewing her he calls me not only we want to read their books but you can see the method my all-time favorite person to interview us because you will not guess you ready [Music] okay so Harlan Coben had been 31 books I have not read any of them the reason is my just talking thrillers it's just um I think I did read this book and I enjoyed it very much it was really great this is the kind of interview that I want to turn down because they do turn people down because I just think there's no way I can read you back I can't possibly but the reason that I would do it is because I dated guys he came he is the loveliest guy you know when they say a person is easy in their skin he is easy in his game he is he's smart he's confident he's funny he's just relaxed and he has a thing that makes a person fun to interview Harlan Coben has volley and what that means is when I ask him a question he turns it around so when I said Harlan that scene in the book in which the hero is tasered with a cattle prod what did you do the research [Music] okay so that's a brief overview of my life some kind of altered interview right now gonna tell you some stories about reading novels the way I work as a novelist is I have an idea and often something that I'm working on in a book carries on for one or two or three books for example in my novel run there is a character who is an ichthyologist and the study of fish and I enjoyed writing about evolutionary biology and reading about so much okay in my next book I want to write about nothing but as scientists and now the state of wonder so things move from boat to book run the siblings are adopted and I was really interested in their relationship with one another so in Commonwealth I decided to write about stepfamilies and see what the step family children and how they related to one another the only thing that I did Oh Indian Commonwealth with the stepchildren the relationship that I enjoyed the most of all of those people was between one stepbrother and stepsister and so I thought in the next book that I write I wanted to write about a brother and a sister so also in my books I'm very interested in time and I think probably all novelists are obsessed by the time but time had been very constricted in my book so the oak entering takes place over three months stated 1 or 2 takes place two or three weeks Ron takes place in 24 hours and I know that I needed to stretch back back to the patron saint of liars which I can't remember but I think it takes place every 12 years I wanted to stretch out again so Commonwealth takes place over four decades now going forward into my next book I knew two things I wanted to write about a brother and a sister I wanted to write the timeline that took place over at least four decades because I really enjoyed working in that larger span of time this book comes out in September of 2016 when I'm done with the book tour I go home I immediately start interviewing people again and the first person I interview is a nice pendant now I have never been intimidated about interviewing anybody except these men this is a couple of reasons one am a huge zisman is famously brilliant just sort of steams off the page house of her she is incredibly beautiful and she's British I mean it was intimidating it turns out she was a wonderful she's very very warm she is every bit as smart as people say she is and weak on stage with the apollon method and we just locked him and we were talking really talking in front of 2,000 people and it was fantastic and Zadie Smith said something that just changed my life so I said to her Commonwealth was largely received as an aquatic of a graphical novel that in many ways it isn't about a biographical novel swing time ulcers even just an amount of background so I'm wondering the mother in this novel is Jamaican your mother's Jamaican father this novel is Caucasian British your father is British the family lives in the same suburb outside of London where you grow up the main character wants to be a dancer a dancer so is this no and Zadie Smith said to me I actually called Zadie Smith and said did I get this right would you think yes we did she says to me it isn't an autobiographical novel but I'm not the daughter and the mother and I'm not the mother in real life and I am in this novel the mother in this novel is the mother that I am afraid of being with my own children she said autobiographical fiction does not have to be about the things that happen to you autobiographical fiction can be what we're afraid of and what we desire and when you think about that what we're afraid of what we desire takes up a lot more space in our brain on any given day and what actually has happened to us I wish something told me this 20 years ago it's one of those things that is - she said I was like of course as exactly right I could never explain how something felt autobiographical even though no aspect of it ever happened and while I'm sitting on stage as Haseman I know the third element of a novel I want to write next and that is I want to really bad stepmother I guess that was the thing I was opposed to fraid of being in my family on both sides every generation as far back as anyone has recorded we have divorced in my family past what we do we marry people we divorce me marry other people and then we stop here on their children so I everybody in my family as Peniston parents none of them good some of them bad but when I first met my stack 225 years ago I was terrified of doing wrong by them I was terrified of letting them down way before they were my stepfather I mean they're in their 20s now we've done very well I love when they love me it's been really good and this is not an active fear but it was such a huge appear a long time ago and so now I know sitting on stage was a tea Smith three things about my novel it's gonna be her brother and his sister it's kind of taking place for more than four decades and there's gonna be a bathtub but this is happening in November of 2016 so there's something else going on [Music] so in the Kardashian world no one's gonna be offended I promise in the Kardashian world in which we lived I felt there was an enormous celebration of wealth and the idea that nothing could be better nothing could make you more of a winner and to be the absolutely richest person and I wanted to write a character who chose to walk away from wealth because it wasn't who she was that's impossible to me that people could choose to not aspire to be blanking language now there are four things going on in this book a brother and his sister 40 years a bad stepmother I don't want you to walks away from wealth and now I know what the novel I'm gonna read next is about and 2017 begins [Music] now I pronounce this books every single day opportunity walks through the door and on January 2nd a 20-18 opportunity came in the form of Robin Rice classroom an illustrator for the Fancy Nancy series Fancy Nancy is a juggernaut 80 books of Fancy Nancy this is the last one Fancy Nancy rules about Kenneth's it just makes me so happy I can say all day long a brother Prince posture and Jane O'Connor the author they've just sold the franchise to Disney if you go to Disneyland this week you can have your picture taken with snowy Sleeping Beauty and fans commands here and they they were gonna be no more fancy dancy post which is fine there are 80 of them we have enough philosophers has to mean I would like you to write a picture book for me to illustrate because I'm starting over again and I'm looking for a new series and I say no I mean I don't know without writing a picture book I don't have children I don't read picture books I don't think about children's literature and know how to do it she says he was planning to you so she copies Fancy Nancy little zoo kittens yeah she says it's 32 pages long 750 words she's a complete narrative art there have to be jokes for the adults and the children if the adults don't find it funny they're only gonna read it at once so this is this is what it is give it a try we are the same publisher it is true that I've never thought about writing a picture of us but it is also true that when I'm in the middle of writing a novel I can write anything if I'm in the middle of it all and you come to my house and you say could you write a letter for my daughter and you write a piece for the nation on countable warfare I wouldn't say yes can you write a haiku yes there's your book I don't see why not so they're right all day and after dinner I come downstairs with my computer sitting in the den for my husband and I write picture book has got 150 words called Buffalo in Rome Buffalo misunderstand to the song in the skies in Sag Harbor the squared is the name a friend of mine and every corner there was a little tiny sign Desmond pony camp along ponies from Little Ponies name into the south hello knees making lanterns [Music] a lot with their toothbrush this is the life I love now I have been every single pain I see makes me think of a picture boat and I kept writing them in Harper's that office is great this is this is this is okay and then they asked me to stop and when you when you read the article that says fast and is found and you talk to her Seuss book and you're thinking of it did not just find a new doctor some piece of trash dr. Seuss through his trash cans nobody pulled it out another kinda pawn off some third-rate talk no no no you actually forget but you ain't them forget because they're short and your ratings from many of them so last March Connor lamb won the 17th congressional district in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and there was a picture in the New York Times a stone holding up a peaceful poster boy that said lamb slide and I look at my husband and I said those tears too right landslide right if you look at every page we have another one coming out in April of next year but basically we have been coming out highly for the rest of my life the next one you will not even believe they're doing this written this okay you're ready ooh misunderstand landslide landslide they have to build a consensus on the farm info chickens and their cows and the pigs on board to see the table in a landslide and then they vote my life because they care they were there to see wrong and I stood in the back funny noises with the prophets and I since then have really gone into the children's world whole talk and one of my dearest friends is standing point now if you have read as I'm sure you have a standing point book don't miss this one which is my favorite it is the sequel to not hippopotamus it is a very tender book about an armadillo that goes his own way so this is now in July of 2018 and the book is going well but the book is due in September 2018 because my publisher wants to bring it out in September 2019 and the way novels work you hand in a year in advance Taron talking to Sandy and I said I've got to finish this book but I keep interviewing people I keep having a house guests I keep writing children's books I can't focus and Sandy says to me listen nobody uses in stay in this house and I was amazing it was there and my house something there make all writers can pass because Patrick lives in an apartment in New York that is about two-thirds the size of this state and so once or twice a year he comes to our house he stays in the basement he works on his book hesitates tears to work on my book we have our meals together and we get a huge amount done and everyone in my life respects writers began after his there I don't have to interview anyone I don't have to go to lunch they don't do anything they just work he's downstairs writing I'm not stairs reading my finished book and I'm going to start my revisions and I start reading it in spring and I'm excited by reading and down and down and the whole time I'm thinking about my little boy because I'm thinking one do not be alarmed turn on Lauren Miley aside from being a fantastic writer and a dear friend is also an amazing editor so I'm thinking if I can just get to the end of this book I can send it to my lane and she can help me figure out how to fix it but this book is so bad and I get ten pages from the end I stopped reading it and you ever read a book so bad that you stopped ten pages from the end that is the hallmark of a bad time imagine even wrote that I did not send it to Milan I did not send it to anyone no one saw everyone in my life it was amazing all day long my only joy was the knowledge that no one had read it and I just you know how you saying it was like burning a cake there's nothing you can do with a burn cake you just have to start over again I [Music] knew it was gonna be the same people it was gonna be the same house but it had to be a different plot I call my editor the book is not coming and we are not publishing in September 2019 he says we have to be saved this pot I can give you until February 1st we 19 handed him sent him try to start it again he was like I could to page 30 or hit the wall I started getting like in to page 38 football I started in is like oh this is really interesting you're 55 years old I didn't know you can still write this pathway is so terrible I work I work nowhere and then November 2nd 2013 saw her poster town I had her you know you saw her twice I interviewed her both for the luncheon event and an evening event like this and average it was wrong with me because most of these people to stay at her house afterwards Melinda Gates apartment 8 room with me and she said okay tell me your brothers and we then did something that novelists call novel therapy Naaman therapy is when one novelist tells in that you don't pass the person to read the book you just tell them the story and they help you talk through your problems so I told Barbara the book was originally what I wanted to do I kept hitting the wall and she was like I can tell you I see your problems like page 28 you know you went right you should I get on left the mother's not attend a father doesn't live oh my gosh something in migraine for the first time sounding in my brain goes okay and I see a little ray of light the next morning I wake up at a Burger King solder to the airport the marketing director at Parnassus of books calls me up and says after you drop her off to go get some lunch for Kate DiCamillo she's in town during this whole visit at Oak Hill she's a huge fan imagine it would be so I have a coming out both in I did for many rows around the introduction to continue the anomaly recession I said this is the person we talk on the phone for two hours and again like click I have figured it out thanks to these two conversations of therapy I now know that I can do this it is November 4th the next day I had an email from nail framer who I had interviewed my house has to me do you know she says okay I don't need to talk to her but I need you to find her and to tell her that my seven-year-old son and I finished reading the miraculous journey of Edward Tulane last night yes and it changed our lives you got to thank her for me and imagine you are such a jerk cuz I think 80 Miller twice and I know that she has read every word I've ever written and she loves my books myself anything came to Carolina's room because I don't know so I didn't my car I dropped my locally owned and operated independently the miraculous journey over to Lane and I read about night I think God's me and it changes my life and I make a decision that I am going to read every single word never done this in my life without stop without reading anybody else in between I'm gonna read the whole body of her work I'm gonna read the mercy Watsons I'm gonna read the techno who drives I'm gonna read all the novels I'm blind Kate DiCamillo we launch into this furious friendship we email back and forth all the time like call her fluffy I read all of her books this one is my favorite we need countless I just read the introduction to the 20th anniversary edition of because I'm an example so now this December of 2019 and there are three things going on I'm reading nothing for Kate DiCamillo I am writing my novel which I haven't completely figured out around the clock I am very very sick bronchitis I am so sick I have to send Sparkie out because I can't even walk him but for some reason I considered my dust for 16 hours a day and that's why I'm doing and in one point at the end of the year I get an email from fluffy as I do every day and she says how's the book going I said it's going really well I'm almost done and five minutes later can take Miller runs me back and she says I got a girlfriend this is how it ends she sends me a paragraph Kate DiCamillo knows two things about the book I'm working on she does the main character's name is made and she knows that is called the Taj house the paragraph that she sends me is the end of the book I had never thought that was where the book ended and as soon as I got that paragraph I wrote the last 20 pages because I knew what was gonna happen now January 9th I finished now this was very important because come January 12th challenge ins Jane Hamilton and I have a tradition whenever she finishes a book she reads it out loud to me so she's driving across country she's gonna stop and spend the night I said can you stay for a few nights I'm gonna read you the new novel she says yes for two and a half days Jamie Hamilton calls me mrs. pen Devon because that is actually my name I called her this is Willard because that is her name at the end of two and a half days mrs. Willard says to me mrs. Van Deventer the first third of this novel is spectacular this is pentameter the second third of his novel is a miracle mrs. Van Deventer the third section of this novel goes on Shayne's why you know how it is when your friend tells you the truth you don't have to ask twice you know the truth when you hear it but she's telling me the truth she is right and I am panic-stricken I now have just over two weeks I began to correct pretty much without cease and I send the book to Donna Tartt and smiley Malloy and Patrick Ryan and I send it to Lizzie Gilbert I send it to Elizabeth McCracken and I get notes from all them which is not a marked of manuscript I'm talking about like a note where they say the second half of chapter three should be at the end of chapter five that kinda thing I think all those other information I get last section of the book fixed I turn it in on January 31st of this year and my editor loves it now we have everything except the cover let me tell you something about China's friends book jackets are like your birthday how many of you ever had the experience of the person you love saying to you a week before your birthday what would you like to do on our special day and you say and when they in fact coach Jenkins unlike your birthday because if you cannot figure out what you want don't expect someone else to figure out what you want and surprise you you better take responsibility now I know for a fact well I don't want to cover this book is a house door no no and do not order go the Dutch house must exist in the imagination of the reader well I want on the cover of the book is the painting that is in the house of maze when she's 10 so I stated my editor and the director of the urban I know this guy in Nashville named Noah scatters from I think he paint the portrait of the knave and we could use that on the cover not be New Yorkers they say me well that's a really good idea we are going to make a list of 9 or 10 meters very interested in and then we're gonna get some linear sketches from famine and then we'll have a meeting and we'll decide this is what I need in a painting of a 10 year old girl with black hair and a red coat painted in 1950 in the style of 1910 by a Scotsman she's in love with he says dramas to this day he still hasn't read this book reading tiny children he says you got a choice either I can read it or I contain it four days later the first time flogging DiCamillo comes to Nashville to visit without a book event we get this painting and I send it to New York and they love it Paddington I send a photograph I own this painting and is in my living room now we have everything done except the audio book my favorite audio book is the Testament of Mary i taunt women s read by Meryl Streep movie star hey no Tom Hanks Tom Hanks likes baseball I say to them Tom no pitches no hits I don't think you're gonna do this but I know for sure you're not gonna do this if I don't have the nerve to pass there are two reasons I have the nerve to ask you one my favorite audio book is the testament of Mary read by Meryl Streep I believe it is the greatest role of her career - you were in a Carly Rae Jepsen video wants me back you said that sounds like fun send me the manuscript I did keep recorded that is the story [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm not pissed and personalized books free sign them they're all there along with the adorable and sleds but I will answer questions so if anybody has a question you can come to the microphones and you can ask the question how did it 7 Philadelphia the rest room where you can shout it out it's really when I was in college I was fearing for those depends with Erika Las Palmas Mincha Cheltenham chickentown pumpkins park it's practically the same place so I went there me comes because it was too far away for me to go home she's still one of my very best friends and I like to set a book in a place that I know but not too well it also needed to have a reasonable proximity to New York City and place although the places that I was really thinking about in monadic ways was the suburb of Chicago which Peniston Austin home of most beautiful houses I've ever seen in my life yes how did I decide to narrate in first person from Danny's perspectives to the made I knew what you were asking absolutely because well for one thing first person was something I wanted to try again I hope it in the first person novels since 1994 and I was interested in going back first person was really easy and I didn't want to do it anymore I found it but the book is about made made when you're writing the first person thing you have to ask yourself this is this person who would tell her own story no maybe it's not that kind of person I wanted her observed I wanted us looking at Maeve through Danny's eyes so that was why I think tim is the narrator people have also said was it hard to write in the point of view of a man Danny was a snap for me Danny is smart successful charming easy and his skin much more open and completely oblivious to the fact he has held aloft on the shoulders with the women who loved him his wife his sister his household staff his daughter and he never notices he thinks that he is living her golden life because he is golden amazingly and actually if it had been someone looking at Danny if it had been made looking at Danny it would have seen angry about Danny but Danny looking at named Danny's just kind of charmed but there are known as raving seriously seriously Danny so that was a lot of yes oh you're so close to the microphone so back in the days when I used for gourmet anytime I needed to do any research about anything that would call my editor bill sternal and say I need to go to the Amazon I'm ready the Amazon and he was like great I'll send you to the Amazon and that's how I did everything back in those golden days of expense accounts so I was writing the piece and we were on a boat it was it was this very beautiful luxury boat that had just started I think that there were maybe 14 rooms on the boat and then every day they would put the guests in to open boats and take you on these long journeys down the Amazon and I mean tiny tributaries never see another person so in the middle of nowhere 10 people in an overcoat and go we're going down and one of their cars in the guest he sticks his hand in water and he's got a condom but here okay hours later he pulls maybe even anaconda into this what they smell like something you can't even believe when they're frightened something that is going ever dreamed of when this trillion stick wraps around this guy whose name is Greg Greer and he is for professional herpetologist and he takes people on guided tours all around in the world and anything that will kill you and explains it so while this he explains and then you know is there [Music] [Music] on the edge of this [Music] [Applause] yes no no did not participate in revelry I know so many people who've done that I didn't do it and it's one of those things where you go and you make new friends I have so many friends the idea of going and making new ones just seems impossible it's just means that all these people that you meet are going to ask you to write them a lot of recommendation and that's what happens - I'm sure the people are having a fabulous time there - yes okay so the question is about truth and beauty and my friend Lucy I'll tell you that book was great both tonight that morning that I wrote about my my best friend who died when we were 39 and it was a lovely smart healing thing for me to do to write that book which I wrote as soon as she died but everywhere I go people say you know Lucy and that's really a wonderful thing I think she was smoking you in cancer when she was nine years old the cancer there she had that a 2% survival rate she lived to be 39 she has tacular life in many ways a million friends she wrote two books one of the bottom biography of the face was a great book she touched so many people she did a really great job and the main the main time that I think about this he now is my birthday there's never been anyone who was more afraid of getting old than Lucy and at 39 she talked endlessly about how she didn't wanna be 14 she didn't like it old 39 can you I mean it's like a joke and she died at 39 and I think every year on my birthday okay used to think about her birthday the day she died now I just think on my birthday Lucy I'm 55 and it's great it's so great I will never mind being old because she didn't get to be old but she did great job the life that she had so thank you for asking that I was drawing from my own ears in life not necessarily my fears about being a writer here's the thing about being a writer it's a job my husband goes to work every day he's and talked her he has really hard things he doesn't he's not afraid right when people come in and they're crazy sick they're crazy and and he might not know what's wrong with him and he might have to talk to other people about a lot of tests you may never figure out what's wrong he's not afraid of it and that's really how I feel about writing sometimes it's incredibly hard sometimes there are problems I will never solve and sometimes I will fail but I do find a part of my brain that is creative and the part of my brain that is critical and I don't criticize myself because if you're critical while you're being creative you can actually get to the point where I say you edit yourself off the page you don't even write your thoughts down because you can see what's wrong with it before you even type it so you can just kind of learn to shut that and to say you know I'm doing this because I enjoy it it's a gift it's a privilege if it's making you miserable don't do it there are plenty of other things that you can do I highly recommend this program opaque magic which is just a book about living the creative life no matter what it is you're doing and being happy there was somebody behind yes criticism is the greatest gift you can give something all I want is for my book to be the very best possible book if I am coming out in some organic outfit and I asked you how I look and you say great you are not doing me a favor I want to be the best writer by canopy and criticism thoughtful criticism from people that I know and trust as an enormous gift in every group there is a schoolteacher an English teacher who says I want to encourage my students creativity but I don't want to squash their spirit you know if you are a math teacher and you care that it's cuz 2+2 is 5 and you think girls are afraid of math I don't want to be negative and say oh Jenny sometimes 2+2 is 5 and that's where we release our creative answer you are you're crippling that person you're doing them an injustice and the same thing is true with writing we should all learn how to take criticism and we should all want to be better and to do our best work so very grateful yes now I'm so I'm so high I do a woman who sent to me I was so devastated when I wrote when I read Commonwealth because I was going to write a novel that opened with a party and now I can't seriously yeah good yes no there are no those I would do a sequel to nor would I write a screenplay nor am i vaguely induced it I'll tell you I finished a book at the point that which I feel that you as a reader find enough information to take it forward it is the contract between a book and the reader so if you are still thinking about those characters if you want to know what happened to Easter that's your responsibility to figure it out where I got the idea for well Cantor was based on a true story the takeover of the Japanese embassy in Lima Peru in 1995 and there wasn't an opera singer and none of those things happened but that was the original idea yes that is such an interesting question the question is do I ever think he or she pod from angry somebody asked me that once years ago years and years ago and I always say when the question people like to ask which is what's the one question somebody asks you there was really a summer and I always say that is a bit long we're now the second person to ever have asked me that question because what you're asking me is do I believe in God I mean that's the essential question which is apparently - and yeah I think it is it's not the kind of thing it's really funny it seems very personal I'm Catholic I went to Catholic girls school for 12 years and you want to know that one thing countless never do we don't say this it's why there are no nuns it's why they're all dying out because they can't they can't canvas they can't go from door to door get people to sign on in my heart in my prayer in my private life yes but on stage okay we'll do this and then we'll go to Tennessee yes were there any important takeaways with my time in the Writers Workshop yes going to the Iowa Writers Workshop is like going to a poker game and sometimes you're going to get dealt a good hand and sometimes you're not going to get dealt a good hand and the hand is other people in your class and the teacher when I was an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence I was on a hot streak like nobody's business I studied with Alan Berg anise Russell banks and greyscale and each year it was the most astonishing education in creative writing than probably anyone's ever had in Iowa through no fault at all I drew bad hands for four semesters a lot of it had to do with the fact that they were in the process of hiring a new director when I was there and they didn't have their eyes but you know I learned how to teach I had two years to write it did me no harm intended oh good and I have nothing against the workshop because I think you could go back and tell for great hands um think of me tonight as I am barreling towards - help listening talent all the podcasts I very much appreciate you coming and thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: LouisvilleMetroTV

Views: 13,563

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Id: D2bVFQBs8zI

Length: 71min 57sec (4317 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2019