You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

or you are the only animal,

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

Hi, this is Michael Silverblad, and welcome to Bookworm. Today, my guest is John

Gregory Dunn. He's the author most recently of the novel, Playland, published by Random House,

the author as well of several autobiographical memoirs, crooning and harp, novels, Dutch

The Red, White and Blue, True Confessions,

and several books on the workings of the entertainment industry, Vegas and the studio.

I thought I'd start there.

You like to explore the workings of places that present their surfaces mainly?

Yeah, I mean, I do, I do.

And I also like to, in fiction, explore things like the cops,

places and institutions.

How things work interests me. I mean, really, it's, I'm interested in how a baseball pitcher throws a curveball.

I mean, I'm interested in how surgeons change an aortic valve.

I'm interested in institutions

and in institutions that have a public face to the world.

I like to sort of look beyond that face.

I mean, that's where the fun is.

Is there a difference between writing a novel and writing screenplays other than a formal

difference?

...