Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of Maximum Fun.org and is distributed by NPR.

It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorne. Susan Orlean has spent over 45 years writing. Her early

career took her from alternative newspapers to the New Yorker. She started writing Talk of the

town vignettes in 1987. Her gift was noticing. She could see a funny sign on a street corner

and figure out why it was a

fascinating story. One of her first smash hits was about the rivalry between two hot dog restaurants,

Gray's Papaya and the Papaya King. In 1990s, she published her first book Saturday Night,

stories from a polka hall and a teenager's babysitting gig and a missile silo all at that special time of the week.

The orchid thief followed an obsessive outlaw who collected rare flowers.

The library book was a history of L.A.'s Central Library, and particularly of the suspicious fire that nearly burned it down.

All of Orleans' work is animated by that eye for detail and story, the incredible dresses on the woman at the polka hall, the strange

people who were obsessed with strange flowers, the man who walked across the country to found that

library in L.A. Not long ago, Susan Orlean had an

idea to write a book about writing, how to do it, what works for her, what doesn't. And as she

put pen to paper, that project became bigger, a memoir of her life and career called Joyride. Orlean

has spent a lifetime noticing the little details about others.

For once, she has pointed her attention at herself. But don't worry, it's not all craft.

There are also crazy stories, like her career-making profile of Rajnishpuram, the cult town in Oregon

that seemed to capture the curdling of post-disco America.

Anyway, so glad to get to talk with Susan about this book. Let's get right into it.

Susan Orlean, welcome back to Bullseye. I'm so happy to see you again. It's always so nice to see you.

I'm so happy to be here. I really am. I'm glad. Okay. So as I was reading the introduction to your book, Joy, Ride, there was a paragraph that I marked in my mind. Please have Susan read this paragraph. Would you mind reading it for me?

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