Anna Quindlen Wants You to Write

The Book Case

ABC News

Fiction, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.1 • 766 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anna Quindlen can write pretty much anything – years of insightful columns for the “New York Times,” wonderful fiction as evidenced by nine widely-read novels, and non-fiction as well. The latest is her plea for all of us to write. “Write for Your Life” is the book. It’s a small volume but it’s message belies its size. Anna Quindlen wants us writing for future grandchildren and great-grandchildren, for our current loved ones, and even for ourselves. Write letters, keep journals, record your own life history – it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be personal. She asks her readers: If you could have one piece of writing from someone in your life who’s gone, who would that be? When you answer that, you’ll know why writing is so important. As you write, she argues, it may even bring greater clarity about your own problems and thoughts. After our conversation with Anna, stay for Sharon Davis of Book Bound Bookstore in Blairsville, Georgia, population 616. Talk about an act of faith! Opening a tiny town independent bookstore. Talking to Sharon was at the suggestion of one of our listeners, and we appreciate it. Books Mentioned: Write for Your Life by Anna Quindlen Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier by Linda Peavy Object Lessons by Anna Quindlen The Holy Bible A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting by Anna Quindlen Grandma Gatewood’s Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury One Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni The Gilded Wolves by Roshai Choksi The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We welcome you back to the bookcase. I'm Charlie Gibson.
0:05.9	And I'm Kate Gibson.
0:07.4	And this week we are going to feature a writer who has got such a wide range of what she can do.
0:15.3	Anna Quinlan first came to my attention, and I think to the attention of the world when she was invited to write a column
0:22.1	a couple times a week for the New York Times on their op-ed page, which she did for years and then
0:26.4	left to write novels and to write nonfiction. And she writes all of them well. She has
0:31.2	extraordinary range. This one is called Write for Your Life. What's that mean?
0:36.4	It's different from her other books. You know,
0:38.4	my personal favorite is alternate side. I love alternate side, but we'll talk about that in a minute.
0:43.3	That's a novel. That's a novel. But this is a bit of a departure for her because I would consider
0:48.0	this almost a what, almost a plea in book form. It's about writing. It's a plea for readers to talk about the importance
0:58.5	of writing. That sounds about right, right? He asks everybody who reads the book to then turn
1:04.6	around and start writing. You're going to have to hunt for this book a little bit. I don't
1:08.0	think it's going to be out on the bestseller shelf
1:10.8	or table in your bookstore. It's a little tome. Yes. You can read it in a couple of hours,
1:16.7	but she basically makes the argument that you want to write. You, the reader, want to write,
1:22.5	and you want to write for your relatives, for your future generations, and for history as to what the times were
1:29.5	like. So she says, don't be afraid of it. Just do it. Just start writing about your everyday life.
1:36.9	And she points out her ancestors, particularly mother and father, didn't write enough. She wants
1:43.0	some of their writing, and she wants it in a particular form, or at least't write enough. She wants some of their writing, and she wants
1:45.2	it in a particular form, or at least some of it. She talks about the importance of letters and
1:50.3	diaries and cards of really, you know, you're able to experience that person, even if they're not
	...

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