1
00:00:00,867 --> 00:00:03,003
[echoing piano 
leads placid arrangement]

2
00:00:03,003 --> 00:00:07,674
§

3
00:00:07,674 --> 00:00:10,343
(man) 
To me, the writer's block

4
00:00:10,343 --> 00:00:12,846
is more writer's evasion

5
00:00:12,846 --> 00:00:15,582
[chuckling] 
or writer's procrastination.

6
00:00:16,850 --> 00:00:19,786
If I get myself in a chair,

7
00:00:19,786 --> 00:00:23,223
I can always think of a story.

8
00:00:23,223 --> 00:00:25,025
It just comes.

9
00:00:25,025 --> 00:00:27,027
§

10
00:00:27,027 --> 00:00:29,896
This is the opening 
of, uh,  &nbspDarkWinter,

11
00:00:29,896 --> 00:00:32,432
which is one 
of the Cuddy Mangum novels,

12
00:00:32,432 --> 00:00:34,734
so I know the voice.

13
00:00:34,734 --> 00:00:37,137
I--I've heard 
Cuddy before,

14
00:00:37,137 --> 00:00:39,506
but to capture 
exactly

15
00:00:39,506 --> 00:00:42,976
what that voice says is--

16
00:00:42,976 --> 00:00:45,178
is crucial to me.

17
00:00:45,178 --> 00:00:47,547
Here's the first sentence:

18
00:00:47,547 --> 00:00:52,018
"This is about the summer 
when everything changed."

19
00:00:52,018 --> 00:00:54,054
Now, I thought a lot

20
00:00:54,054 --> 00:00:57,123
and then have removed 
the word   when.

21
00:00:57,123 --> 00:01:00,560
"This is the summer 
everything changed."

22
00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:03,463
That's--doesn't seem 
like much of a difference,

23
00:01:03,463 --> 00:01:06,766
but it's  &nbspevery  difference.

24
00:01:06,766 --> 00:01:08,802
Like Mark Twain said,

25
00:01:08,802 --> 00:01:11,004
the difference 
between one word

26
00:01:11,004 --> 00:01:13,340
and another word 
is the difference

27
00:01:13,340 --> 00:01:17,410
between lightning 
and a lightning bug.

28
00:01:17,410 --> 00:01:19,879
So you're looking 
for the lightning

29
00:01:19,879 --> 00:01:21,881
when you write.

30
00:01:21,881 --> 00:01:25,552
§

31
00:01:25,552 --> 00:01:28,621
After so many years, 
decades away,

32
00:01:28,621 --> 00:01:30,090
I was writing television.

33
00:01:30,090 --> 00:01:31,925
I was in New York.

34
00:01:31,925 --> 00:01:35,395
Maureen was teaching at, uh, 
University of Pennsylvania.

35
00:01:35,395 --> 00:01:37,664
I had met Eudora Welty,

36
00:01:37,664 --> 00:01:40,100
whose work I  &nbsphugely  admired.

37
00:01:40,100 --> 00:01:42,669
I told her, 
"I'm havin' trouble,

38
00:01:42,669 --> 00:01:44,838
"and I've written 
three novels.

39
00:01:44,838 --> 00:01:46,840
"Novel one's California.

40
00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:48,975
"Novel two's Colorado.

41
00:01:48,975 --> 00:01:51,111
Novel three's Connecticut."

42
00:01:51,111 --> 00:01:54,914
And she said, "Honey, you're 
just sneakin' up on Carolina.

43
00:01:54,914 --> 00:01:57,984
"You go home 
and let your fiction

44
00:01:57,984 --> 00:02:01,688
grow out of that land 
beneath your feet."

45
00:02:01,688 --> 00:02:06,026
[chuckling] 
It was an astonishing moment 
in my life.

46
00:02:06,026 --> 00:02:08,328
I started  &nbspUncivilSeasons.

47
00:02:08,328 --> 00:02:11,531
The moment I wrote 
that first sentence:

48
00:02:11,531 --> 00:02:14,701
"Two things don't happen 
very often...

49
00:02:21,508 --> 00:02:24,344
That voice that  &nbspwe 
was different--

50
00:02:24,344 --> 00:02:26,613
I was always puttin' 
these outsiders

51
00:02:26,613 --> 00:02:28,348
in the first novels--

52
00:02:28,348 --> 00:02:32,352
the person from the South 
who was living in Connecticut,

53
00:02:32,352 --> 00:02:35,588
but then I was 
in that red clay,

54
00:02:35,588 --> 00:02:38,992
that landscape 
of my imagination.

55
00:02:38,992 --> 00:02:44,030
I think those experiences 
are set fairly early.

56
00:02:44,030 --> 00:02:45,565
Willa Cather--

57
00:02:45,565 --> 00:02:47,667
she lived 
in Red Cloud, Nebraska,

58
00:02:47,667 --> 00:02:50,003
from age 9 to age 15,

59
00:02:50,003 --> 00:02:52,772
but that's the landscape 
of her imagination.

60
00:02:52,772 --> 00:02:55,108
That's what she sees.

61
00:02:55,108 --> 00:02:58,678
Joyce had long since 
gotten outta Dublin,

62
00:02:58,678 --> 00:03:00,780
but you read  &nbspUlysses,

63
00:03:00,780 --> 00:03:05,285
and you are on the streets 
and in the pubs.

64
00:03:05,285 --> 00:03:07,287
And for me,

65
00:03:07,287 --> 00:03:10,557
the red clay 
of North Carolina,

66
00:03:10,557 --> 00:03:13,660
the towns, the sound--

67
00:03:13,660 --> 00:03:17,797
that is key, 
and when we came back here

68
00:03:17,797 --> 00:03:20,100
and were looking 
for a place to live,

69
00:03:20,100 --> 00:03:21,668
we came to Hillsborough.

70
00:03:21,668 --> 00:03:23,536
First of all, 
Maureen's wandering around,

71
00:03:23,536 --> 00:03:25,071
saying, "Oh my God!

72
00:03:25,071 --> 00:03:28,742
It's like being 
inside your fiction."

73
00:03:28,742 --> 00:03:33,179
I'm livin' in a house 
in which there were slaves

74
00:03:33,179 --> 00:03:36,216
who moved away 
with Emancipation.

75
00:03:36,216 --> 00:03:39,085
I am living in the presence

76
00:03:39,085 --> 00:03:41,421
of the history

77
00:03:41,421 --> 00:03:43,423
that is so important

78
00:03:43,423 --> 00:03:46,993
to any writer 
from the South.

79
00:03:46,993 --> 00:03:50,730
When I came here, 
I just sat down in a chair

80
00:03:50,730 --> 00:03:54,768
and started to write 
as fast as I could.

81
00:03:54,768 --> 00:03:58,805
I am just passionate 
about silence

82
00:03:58,805 --> 00:04:02,375
because the way I write 
is to sit there

83
00:04:02,375 --> 00:04:05,412
and essentially say, 
"Talk to me."

84
00:04:05,412 --> 00:04:08,381
I'm listening so hard,

85
00:04:08,381 --> 00:04:10,617
and I think that's 
really coming out

86
00:04:10,617 --> 00:04:12,886
of my personal experience.

87
00:04:12,886 --> 00:04:14,988
My mother was deaf,

88
00:04:14,988 --> 00:04:19,626
and I was... 
her ears in a way--

89
00:04:19,626 --> 00:04:21,661
"Listen for me"--

90
00:04:21,661 --> 00:04:23,830
and I really think 
there's a relation

91
00:04:23,830 --> 00:04:27,200
between that 
and my being a writer.

92
00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:29,369
Who is 
the voice?

93
00:04:29,369 --> 00:04:31,471
Who's gonna tell 
this story?

94
00:04:31,471 --> 00:04:32,839
I always say,

95
00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:35,742
you don't have to be a whale 
to write   Moby Dick.

96
00:04:35,742 --> 00:04:39,245
You know, that person may be 
very different from you,

97
00:04:39,245 --> 00:04:41,548
but you-- 
you have to hear.

98
00:04:41,548 --> 00:04:44,984
"Through a meadow where 
in summer wildflowers grew.

99
00:04:44,984 --> 00:04:48,021
"Toward the bottom, 
the slope plunged steeply

100
00:04:48,021 --> 00:04:50,190
"through the knolls 
and gullies

101
00:04:50,190 --> 00:04:53,660
"left by century-old 
earthen terraces

102
00:04:53,660 --> 00:04:56,996
"falling to the edge 
of the dark woods

103
00:04:56,996 --> 00:04:59,532
that guarded Heaven's Hill."

104
00:04:59,532 --> 00:05:01,534
[delicate piano 
leads droning strings]

105
00:05:01,534 --> 00:05:03,803
The physical landscape

106
00:05:03,803 --> 00:05:08,074
defined this place 
that we live in--

107
00:05:08,074 --> 00:05:12,445
became a fictional place 
to me.

108
00:05:12,445 --> 00:05:15,648
The courthouse in Hillsborough 
showed up in "Red Clay,"

109
00:05:15,648 --> 00:05:17,250
a short story of mine.

110
00:05:17,250 --> 00:05:18,718
[guitar leads strings]

111
00:05:18,718 --> 00:05:20,720
"Up on its short slope,

112
00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:22,956
"the columned front 
of our courthouse

113
00:05:22,956 --> 00:05:25,191
"was waxy in the August sun,

114
00:05:25,191 --> 00:05:27,694
"like a courthouse 
in lake water.

115
00:05:27,694 --> 00:05:31,965
"The leaves hung from maples, 
and the flag of North Carolina

116
00:05:31,965 --> 00:05:35,502
"wilted flat 
against its metal pole.

117
00:05:35,502 --> 00:05:37,604
"Heat sat sodden 
over the county

118
00:05:37,604 --> 00:05:39,706
"week by relentless week;

119
00:05:39,706 --> 00:05:42,208
"they called the weather 
'dog days'

120
00:05:42,208 --> 00:05:44,444
"after the star, Sirius,

121
00:05:44,444 --> 00:05:46,813
but none of us knew that."

122
00:05:46,813 --> 00:05:48,848
[strings ebb and flow]

123
00:05:48,848 --> 00:05:53,153
The mill's so much 
a part of the change

124
00:05:53,153 --> 00:05:56,856
from the old South 
to the new South that is, uh,

125
00:05:56,856 --> 00:05:58,591
a part of the story,

126
00:05:58,591 --> 00:06:00,927
particularly 
of  &nbspTime's Witness.

127
00:06:00,927 --> 00:06:04,164
"The factory whistles 
kept crying over Hillston,

128
00:06:04,164 --> 00:06:06,666
"grieving 
for the old industrialist

129
00:06:06,666 --> 00:06:08,535
"who'd built them.

130
00:06:08,535 --> 00:06:11,638
"Decade after decade 
they'd summoned the town

131
00:06:11,638 --> 00:06:15,075
"each morning 
to come weave for him,

132
00:06:15,075 --> 00:06:18,478
"told it at noon 
to eat lunch,

133
00:06:18,478 --> 00:06:21,881
"sent it home 
each evening to rest;

134
00:06:21,881 --> 00:06:25,719
"now they wailed 
that Briggs Cadmean was dead,

135
00:06:25,719 --> 00:06:28,788
"wailed loudest 
here in East Hillston

136
00:06:28,788 --> 00:06:30,990
where the factories loomed."

137
00:06:30,990 --> 00:06:33,193
[piano leads]

138
00:06:33,193 --> 00:06:37,397
Writing 
is a lonely business...

139
00:06:38,665 --> 00:06:43,236
takes isolation...

140
00:06:43,236 --> 00:06:45,605
and so it's wonderful to--

141
00:06:45,605 --> 00:06:50,543
to have other people 
that are doing that.

142
00:06:50,543 --> 00:06:53,346
These are all my neighbors 
in Hillsborough

143
00:06:53,346 --> 00:06:55,348
and all my wonderful friends:

144
00:06:55,348 --> 00:06:58,084
Allan Gurganus, 
Jill McCorkle,

145
00:06:58,084 --> 00:07:01,321
Lee Smith, 
Craig Nova.

146
00:07:01,321 --> 00:07:05,191
All these people live and 
write here in Hillsborough.

147
00:07:05,191 --> 00:07:07,327
[peaceful guitar 
and piano theme]

148
00:07:07,327 --> 00:07:11,731
I do find that this group 
of world-class writers

149
00:07:11,731 --> 00:07:14,968
are wonderfully harmonious.

150
00:07:14,968 --> 00:07:18,204
The beauty 
of having a porch 
like this is,

151
00:07:18,204 --> 00:07:20,273
I can work 
on the porch,

152
00:07:20,273 --> 00:07:22,575
and I 
can either speak 
to people or not.

153
00:07:22,575 --> 00:07:24,177
They don't 
really see you

154
00:07:24,177 --> 00:07:25,679
'cause you're 
slightly recessed,

155
00:07:25,679 --> 00:07:27,781
but it's like command 
performance, you know.

156
00:07:27,781 --> 00:07:29,883
You have to actually 
formally invite people

157
00:07:29,883 --> 00:07:31,885
to come and sit 
on the porch.

158
00:07:31,885 --> 00:07:33,787
They know not-- 
"Hi!" is not,

159
00:07:33,787 --> 00:07:36,322
"Will you come and 
join me for an hour."

160
00:07:36,322 --> 00:07:39,159
It's a buffer; 
it's something pleasant-- 
slows 'em down.

161
00:07:39,159 --> 00:07:41,695
Then you choose the ones 
you want to invite.

162
00:07:41,695 --> 00:07:43,129
What are we doin'

163
00:07:43,129 --> 00:07:44,864
in this little town 
in Hillsborough?

164
00:07:44,864 --> 00:07:47,567
But here we are.

165
00:07:47,567 --> 00:07:50,370
(woman) 
"So, at the beginning 
of this particular summer,

166
00:07:50,370 --> 00:07:52,372
"the summer 
everything changed,

167
00:07:52,372 --> 00:07:55,208
"I started packing 
to head west on Highway 64

168
00:07:55,208 --> 00:07:58,912
in search of a new job, 
new town, new Cuddy Mangum."

169
00:07:58,912 --> 00:08:02,949
(Malone) 
I have been graced 
by my marriage to Maureen.

170
00:08:02,949 --> 00:08:04,818
Editors come and go,

171
00:08:04,818 --> 00:08:07,020
and publishing houses 
come and go,

172
00:08:07,020 --> 00:08:09,756
and she has been 
my constant reader.

173
00:08:09,756 --> 00:08:11,191
(Quilligan) 
"Created herself young,

174
00:08:11,191 --> 00:08:13,126
"mostly out of movies, 
in the belief

175
00:08:13,126 --> 00:08:14,961
"that your script 
can come true

176
00:08:14,961 --> 00:08:16,963
if you keep on 
believing in it."

177
00:08:16,963 --> 00:08:18,832
And she loves to--

178
00:08:18,832 --> 00:08:21,334
sometimes, 
a little hard on me--

179
00:08:21,334 --> 00:08:24,104
hah, you know, yeah-- 
but I've learned,

180
00:08:24,104 --> 00:08:25,705
just watch her face.

181
00:08:25,705 --> 00:08:28,141
If she winces, 
you wanna change that word.

182
00:08:28,141 --> 00:08:29,943
This, everyone's 
gonna recognize--

183
00:08:29,943 --> 00:08:31,745
oh, Cuddy's back!

184
00:08:31,745 --> 00:08:35,849
(Malone) 
And she's been very much 
a part of my work.

185
00:08:35,849 --> 00:08:37,884
§

186
00:08:37,884 --> 00:08:41,654
A novel, when you write it, 
you send it out,

187
00:08:41,654 --> 00:08:45,091
and only 
when it reaches a reader,

188
00:08:45,091 --> 00:08:46,626
when they respond

189
00:08:46,626 --> 00:08:49,462
out of the world 
they come from,

190
00:08:49,462 --> 00:08:51,564
out of the feelings 
they have,

191
00:08:51,564 --> 00:08:54,200
out of the desires 
and the hopes

192
00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:56,803
and the renunciations 
of their lives,

193
00:08:56,803 --> 00:08:59,539
does that novel 
fulfill itself.

194
00:08:59,539 --> 00:09:03,276
That's the great hope 
for a creator of a story...

195
00:09:03,276 --> 00:09:06,279
"Wind was cold 
off the bright water

196
00:09:06,279 --> 00:09:08,581
of Albemarle Sound."

197
00:09:08,581 --> 00:09:11,851
...that it won't be silenced 
by time...

198
00:09:11,851 --> 00:09:14,054
"As I met the ocean,

199
00:09:14,054 --> 00:09:16,923
the sun blew up 
over the horizon line."

200
00:09:16,923 --> 00:09:19,325
...that the characters 
will be there

201
00:09:19,325 --> 00:09:21,695
for a new generation 
of readers

202
00:09:21,695 --> 00:09:23,763
and will speak to them.

203
00:09:23,763 --> 00:09:26,700
"Shafts of sea oats 
bowed shaking

204
00:09:26,700 --> 00:09:29,369
"to a sandy highway

205
00:09:29,369 --> 00:09:31,705
"that warned 
of the dangers

206
00:09:31,705 --> 00:09:33,239
of leaving it."

207
00:09:33,239 --> 00:09:37,239
§