Interview by George Plimpton
E.L. Doctorow
The author tells George Plimpton about the trouble he has writing absence notes for his daughter and argues that it isn't necessary to go to war to become a writer.
E.L. Doctorow’s powerful and innovative novels of American social turmoil include “The Book of Daniel,” “Ragtime,” “Billy Bathgate” and “City of God.” He is the recipient of the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice), the PEN/Faulkner Award and the National Humanities Medal. He lives in New York and has taught in the creative writing program at New York University.
In this recording, Doctorow talks to George Plimpton about the necessity of experience in writing, the revealing statements people make about their own lives and why it’s still hard for him to write absence notes for his young daughter.
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Le Carr
The author talks about working in the "secret world" during the Cold War and why he's a total bore.
John Le Carré was born David Cornwell in Poole, Dorsetshire, England in 1931. Le Carré is a spy-novel master; Graham Greene once called his 1963 bestselling book “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” the best spy novel he had ever read. Le Carré actually was a spy in the 1950s, though he denied this in 1993; for a while he considered joining a monastery.
Instead, since 1961, Le Carré has written 17 novels. Among his best are “The Looking Glass War,” “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” “The Honorable Schoolboy” and “Smiley’s People.”
In this interview with George Plimpton, Le Carré reveals why he changed his name, his time working in the intelligence service during the Cold War and why he’s a total bore.
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How are you, Mr. Blue?
Garrison Keillor talks about his method of writing and the genesis of his tales of Lake Wobegon.
Garrison Keillor is the creator and host of the nationally syndicated radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” broadcast on more than 400 public radio stations nationwide. Born in Anoka, Minn., in 1942, Keillor attended the University of Minnesota and went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969. There he began a Saturday afternoon live variety show, “A Prairie Home Companion.”
Keillor writes a weekly advice column for Salon called “Dear Mr. Blue.” He occasionally writes for Time and National Geographic and is also the author of numerous books, including “A Prairie Home Companion: Pretty Good Joke Book,” “Wobegon Boy” and “The Book of Guys.”
In this interview George Plimpton asks Keillor about his method of writing and the genesis of his tales of Lake Wobegon.
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