Author Lawrence Wright interviewed by Nicholas O’Connell of The Writer’s Workshop about his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Looming Tower, (2006) about the events leading up to 9/11, the novel, The End of October, (2020) about a fictional plague, and recently, “The Pandemic Year,” a nonfiction piece in The New Yorker about COVID-19 which he’s turning into a book of the same name.
“One false word, one extra word, and somebody's thinking about how they have to buy paper towels at the store.”
Patricia Marx
First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!
“For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”
I was trying to write then and I found the greatest difficulty was to put down what really happened in action; what the actual things were which produced the emotion that you experienced…the real thing, the sequence of motion and fact which made the emotion and which would be as valid in a year or ten years or, with luck and if you stated it purely enough, always.
Ernest Hemingway
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
Mark Twain
Hi Nick,
I really enjoyed the interview with Lawrence Wright. I was particularly struck when he stated that October 1918 was the deadliest month in US history until now. Why? My maternal grandmother, a young woman of 30 years, died in October 1918. In my memoir, Limina, I speculate that the pandemic was the cause of her death. My father was 8 years old and had no idea why his mother died. There was no one else to ask. I’ve never met her. This was a great listen.
Hi Alberta,
Glad you enjoyed it! Such an insightful writer.
Best,
Nick
Hi Alberta,
Glad you enjoyed it! A very insightful writer.
Best,
Nick