Cary Baird
asked
Lawrence Wright:
I have read several of your books, and they were all non-fiction. I absolutely loved The Looming Tower and have been impressed by your research and detail. Was it difficult to write a fiction book, and how was your process different (if at all)? And, are you surprised by our current lack of preparation and inability to accurately assess the impacts of the Corona virus? What should change?
Lawrence Wright
Every book has its own unique challenges. The fact that this was fiction was only one of them. There was a lot of research to be done. I'm not a scientist and certainly not a doctor, so I had to understand the medicine. That required a lot of reading, but also recruiting experts who would teach me what I needed to know and keep me from making colossal mistakes. Some of them are on the front lines right now of creating a vaccine. They knew we would be facing a pandemic like this, they just didn't know when. So it's dismaying to realize that there was all this knowledge out there and our government failed to heed the experts.
More Answered Questions
Immigration Art
asked
Lawrence Wright:
I would love to ask how Lawrence Wright selects the topics about which he writes? From the Looming Tower to Carter's Sadat-Begin Middle East Peace Accord to Scientology, the range of the authors interests is extraordinary. Plus, in his spare time, he is involved in theater and is a musician. A fascinating guy!
Christian Hamaker
asked
Lawrence Wright:
You've won a Pulitzer Prize, but you've also lost after being nominated for a National Book Award for "Going Clear." How do you handle losing an award of that stature? Do you quietly seethe every time you see a reference to the book that won the award in that category instead of your book? (I do. You're too polite and diplomatic to say it, but your book was better.) Thanks for your outstanding work.
Bryan
asked
Lawrence Wright:
Your non-fiction works have been enjoyable and practical for me in understanding places I have lived (Afghanistan, Egypt, and Texas). Your previous books have been primarily (entirely?) non-fiction. Have you had the idea for a long time that you would like to do a novel? Have you had characters or outlines of characters already developed that needed to be put into a story or did they come together with the plot?
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