You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

for you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hi, this is Michael Silverblad and welcome to Bookworm.

My guest today is Anne Lamott, the author of Bird by Bird, some instructions on writing

in life recently published by Pantheon.

Well, I guess we have to ask you to explain the title.

It's inevitable.

Yeah.

I just did an interview in Seattle with someone who said,

So, you've written a book about birds.

Sort of.

I have an older brother named John who had a report on birds due in fourth grade,

and he'd had like four months to do it.

These are called Classic Lamotte Study Skills,

and he hadn't started it.

It was due the next day, which was a Monday, and we were all out at our cabin in Bolinas, and he had books on birds, he had paper, he had pencil, he had everything, but there's too much material, and he was overwhelmed. And my dad, who was a writer, sat down with him and said, just take it bird by bird. And I thought it was just the best advice on writing I ever heard.

You've been teaching writing, and this is not so.

Is this more your experience as a writer or your experience talking to writers?

It's every single thing I know about writing.

Every single thing that helps me get some work done every day

...