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 Nicholas Meyer.

He's the author, of course, of the 7% Solution and the West End horror or screenwriter.

And now he has a play called Loco Motives, a play about brains, trains, and Anna Karenina here in performance in Los Angeles under rather special circumstances.

Before I start, I want to let you know that those of you who are interested in seeing the play can see it.

Every Thursday through Sunday through April 18th, it's being performed in a soundstage at the Culver Studio, Soundstage 10, and tickets can be gotten by making reservations at tickets 213-660-T-K-T-S.

Now, the business has gotten out of the way.

We'll start.

This is a play about the death of Leo Tolstoy, and let me start by asking you what led

you to Tolstoy's life and death.

It's also a play about the life of Leo Tolstoy as well as the death.

I read War and Peace 25 years ago, probably for the first

time, and it knocked me out in ways that great works of art that can sort of change your life.

They change your perception of the world. And without going on at

infinitum about war and peace, I'll say that I did become immensely curious about who wrote this book.

And about 16 years ago, there was translated into English, a life of Tolstoy by a French writer

named Henri Trojot.

And I read this book and found it almost as fascinating as the novel itself

because it was such a strange and kind of wacky life.

...