ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What is your history together?
How did you two first meet?
ELIZABETH STROUT:Yes.
Credit: Harper; Penguin Random House
And so when we met it was almost like I knew you without having met you.
But you did both have stories printed inSeventeenmagazine early on, right?
STROUT:I read Ann Patchett’s story inSeventeen.
PATCHETT:No you did not.
That I don’t believe.
STROUT:Yes, yes I did.
That’s when I first saw your name, and I followed you ever since.
Sorry I didn’t tell you that I was, like, stalking you!
But the reason I remember is because I was struck with it.
I was just sort of [mimes paper tossing] throwing them over my shoulder.
Did you do that purposefully, or do they just pop up?
STROUT:They just pop up for me.
You’ve said in that past that Olive as a character came to you all at once.
STROUT:Oh yes, she showed up with a bang.
Though, Ann, you said withDutch Housethat you struggled initially with the first drafts?
PATCHETT:I threw the whole book out.
And I didn’t realize it until I was finished, and then I sat down to read it.
Do you permanently delete those left turns, or do you save them somewhere?
PATCHETT:I permanently delete them.
I have no papers.
[Turns to Strout] Do you have papers?
PATCHETT:Well then that’s the definition of not having papers.
[Laughs] It’s not like they’re going to the archives in Texas.
STROUT:Oh my God, no, no, no.
I rip them in four squares and then put them in the wastebasket, it’s lovely!
PATCHETT:I love you so much.
STROUT:I’m not going to leave a drop.
Not a clean sheet, just my work.
PATCHETT:I’m going to die next to the fireplace, chucking.
[Laughs] The greatest joy to me about throwing out this book is that not One.
And people are like, “Oh my God, what if you’re wrong?”
I’m not wrong.
STROUT:I do understand that, I do.
Elizabeth, did you struggle at all in the writing ofAgain?
STROUT:Oh, this one just came out.
STROUT: and I realized I had pieces, scenes fromOlivethat I never used.
So I just wrote it.
And it was arduous because it always is, but it was not arduous as some.
STROUT:Yes I do actually, it’s funny.
Because it’s like, “There we go, that’s her.”
Is there a real Dutch House for you?
But it’s really important that the reader can bring in their own experience, and whatever they love.
STROUT:That’s so interesting, I understand that.
It’s sucha striking painting, though.
PATCHETT:A friend of mine did it for me.
And he still hasn’t read the book!
He has three tiny kids, he doesn’t have time.
[Laughs] He did it in four days.
And it’s in my house, it’s so gorgeous.
To pivot a little bit, you both seem to excel at drawing deeply imperfect women.
But Olive can really be kind of an ahole.
STROUT:[Laughs] Exactly.
PATCHETT:And I love that she gets love twice!
She is this really flawed person and she is deeply cherishedtwice, that’s amazing.
And I just heard thatLucy Barton’s a play?
With Laura Linney, right?
STROUT:Jan. 6 it opens [in previews], yes.
She did it last summer in London, it’s a one-woman show.
Do you still feel connected to your work in the same way once it’s adapted?
I admired very much what they did, but it felt like it was separate from me.
It played for one week and vanished.
Like, it’s not even on Netflix, it’s so gone.
But you must get approached for pretty much everything you’ve written at this point.
Does that tempt you, or are you wary?
STROUT:Oh, I’m very wary.
And they did a marvelous job, but yes I am wary.
I’m not going to give my stuff to just anybody.
PATCHETT:I read constantly.
STROUT:Me too.
Ann, were you happy to be clear of that with a historical novel?
I don’t find that the goal, I don’t find that attractive.
In fact I find that repulsive."
And it was really a book about [the absent mother character] Ellna walking away.
STROUT:Well I think everything’s political as well, because it just is.
The personal is political, right?
Every choice you make, where you shop, what you buy, how you conduct your life.
She would not want to be riding in that car with that [Trump] bumper sticker.
STROUT:Mmm hmm.
Olive loves her son so much, but she can’t seem to stop alienating him.
STROUT:No, she can’t do it!
She’s Olive, she cannot get it together.
PATCHETT:You know, that relationship reminds me of Rabbit Angstrom and his son [fromJohn Updike’sRabbitnovels].
PATCHETT:I love that book so much.
What’s your relationship to technology?
Ann, you sort of famously just have a flip phone, which you hardly use.
Do you own e-readers, or spend much time on social media?
Elizabeth, you talked about ripping up paper do you actually write on paper?
STROUT:I do, I love it.
PATCHETT:Long ago, someone said that his grandmother wouldn’t use a microwave.
I use it when I travel and it’s in a drawer otherwise.
I’ve never done any social media, I don’t text.
I just don’t do any of those things.
Althoughthe Malcolm Gladwell podcastis fantastic, that’s my only one.
[Laughs]
STROUT:I do have a cell phone, and I like my cell phone.
STROUT:It does really take down some barriers.
So she finds what I do appalling and barbaric, which I do too.
[Laughs]
AndLiz Gilbert, too, connects in a really wonderful way with all these people.
And [claps hands] she raises $3 million in two minutes.
The way she can take that and use it to help the world is phenomenal.
And I just feel like, “Well, in another life.”
But that ship sailed.
I am who I am.
It was a book ofessays, and it sold, only because she did that.
Thank you, Reese.
PATCHETT:Oh, it’s me andJack White.
[Laughs] He’s pressing that vinyl.
STROUT:I am always writing.
So often what happens is I am finishing a book, another book has already begun in me.
For some reason that happens.
PATCHETT:You’re actually writing.
I’m thinking, but I’mtotallynot writing.
And you kept saying, “Oh, I’m so happy!”
Just in this hotel room writing.
It was really fun!
And I didn’t have to be touring for four days.
[Laughs]
What are you both reading right now?
It’s such an important book.
She hasn’t written a novel in 10 years.
It feels nice that fiction can do that right now, that it can have that kind of impact.
PATCHETT:[Gasps] Which is such a bad book!
His essays are great, though.
What about television, are you a fan?
PATCHETT:I only use my TV for my yoga video.
I don’t want another hobby or interest that is going to take my eyes.
I’ll cook, I’ll knit, I’ll take a walk, I’ll do other things.
Speaking of audio books…
PATCHETT:[Laughs] Yes, Tom Hanks readThe Dutch House.
That’s kind of the ultimate, isn’t it?
I just cribbed the whole thing.
PATCHETT:Oh, that’s a good question.
And I do know it.
STROUT:That’s lovely.
