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.
Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.
William Faulkner
Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.
Barbara Kingsolver
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a nam
“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!
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