The Paula Gordon Show |
Conversation 1 Anna Quindlen tells Paula Gordon and Bill Russell how she sees herself as both similar to and different from her readers. She describes her life as a reporter and the great pleasure she has taken in that role. She describes alternate paths she sees reporters taking over time, drawing her own conclusions about people's basic goodness, convinced that there are no "stories" or "issues," only people to whom reporters have a responsibility to be sensitive. |
Conversation 2 Issues journalism concerns Ms. Quindlen. She describes what she sees as the implications of distancing ourselves from the human faces that issues and statistics mask, from homelessness to welfare reform. She describes America's shift from predictable small towns to today's transient society, noting how tempting stereotypes have become, mourning the fact that people today don't look each other in the face anymore. Ms. Quindlen suggests that after 25 years of ringing our hands over the loss of small towns, we would be well served to sit down and figure out how to recreate what was good about them in today's cities, suburbs, work places and churches. She urges us to act, rather than wasting time just talking about issues. She reminds us that we are also tempted to stereotype "the media," complimenting her former newspaper. Ms. Quindlen recalls how she and New York Times editor Abe Rosenthal made up her first opinion column, "Life in the Thirties," without the aid of focus groups or committee meetings. |
Conversation 3 Ms. Quindlen tells us what she thinks is her distinguishing characteristic. She predicts when the media will catch up with the "community" phenomenon she sees flourishing across the country, especially among people who read. She describes how she writes and how every job she's ever had has scared her. æShe recalls how her own kids helped her write her children's books, offering graphic examples of kids prevailing over editors. Returning to the book clubs she visits, she calls for age-appropriate books for kids. She tells us why she is confident, contrary to popular belief, that people are in fact, reading. Then she describes her own lifelong ambition to be a novelist, which came to fruition when she published her first novel in 1990, while still writing her column. |
Conversation 4 Ms. Quindlen uses examples from her latest novel to demonstrate how "character-driven" she is as a novelist. She describes things which make her angry, from wasted potential to bigotry against gay men and lesbian women. She describes how her children are growing up in a more gender-neutral era than did she, which she applauds. She makes very clear her contempt for homophobia. |
Conversation 5 When Ms. Quindlen was writing columns, her highest compliments were from people who profoundly disagreed with her, but never missed reading her work. She describes her philosophy for writing columns and tells how she differed from others. She agrees that a good column is like a democracy, opening up debate. She describes the many ways she uses to be able to hear the readers' voices responding. æMs. Quindlen tells us why she is "incredibly optimistic about the next 25 or 30 years in America,"æretracing where we have been in the last 25 or 30. She tells why today's young people are a source of great hope to her. |
Conversation 6 Anna Quindlen describes the profound affect she sees today's nuns having in our society and tells the essential role they played in her own early life, citing examples of current projects and from her youth. While she enjoyed interviewing Tennessee Williams, Barbra Streisand and other well known people, she bows to the people she says taught her what it means to be human. She tells us why, in the end, she is delighted to be an idealist. |
Acknowledgements It was a pleasure to have others join us around at the dining table in The Commerce Club's Bobby Jones room as we talked with Ms. Quindlen. As always, the hospitality was impeccable. |
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