Anna Quindlen on Writer's Block and the Simple Secrets to a Long Marriage
(Todd Plitt/Contour by Getty Images)
Anna Quindlen may have a Pulitzer Prize and a résumé full of best sellers, but she's not above doing some channel-surfing, too. "I'm an inveterate TV watcher and needlepointer—simultaneously," says the ­acclaimed author, 61, whose ­latest novel is Still Life With Bread Crumbs. "There's so much good writing on television now: True Detective, Justified, The Good Wife, House of Cards." Quindlen, who lives in New York City with her attorney husband, Gerald Krovatin, ­admits that most of her writing rituals "are designed to allow me not to write: power walking, newspapers, phone calls. But eventually I run out of other things to do."
What was the first book you remember loving as a child?
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. Jo March wants to be a writer and then becomes one. Enough said.
Related: Who Does Anna Quindlen Want to Meet?
Still Life With Bread Crumbs has a reinvention theme. If you were to reinvent yourself, what other career ­would you like?
I always wanted to be a doctor. I drive my doctors crazy by self-diagnosing, but in my defense I'm nearly always right.
You were a newspaper reporter in New York in the '70s. What's your favorite memory of that period in your career?
When you're a young ­re­porter, every moment is pretty indelible. Just taking the subway to a crime scene or a press conference or a community event was exciting because you never knew what would happen when you arrived. And, frankly, I was so green that I was always nervous about my ability to ­deliver the goods. I dictated a fair number of stories from phone booths on deadline. Boy, does that date me! Bottom line: I more or less loved it all.
Do you ever have writer's block?
Some days I fear writing dreadfully, but I do it anyway. I've discovered that sometimes writing badly can eventually lead to something better. Not writing at all leads to nothing.
Related: Books that Inspired Anna Quindlen's Writing
What's your perfect Sunday?
I cook my husband a hot breakfast, and my kids if they're around. I'm pretty famous in a small way (among my family) for my eggs Benedict, although now my daughter makes them just as well as I do. I pore over the newspapers on the couch, drink way too much coffee. Gerry and I usually take the dogs for a long walk. I don't make dinner on Sundays; that's takeout day around here. Chinese, Thai, pizza—you can get any kind of takeout in New York. I love food that someone else makes for me.
You and your husband have been together since college. What's your secret?
I like to cook and he likes to eat. He likes to watch sports on television, and I like to let him do that while I read.
You've written a lot about your family in your columns. How do they feel about that?
All three of my children are ­writers of various kinds, so it can't have been too terrible having a writer mother. Most of my ­columns about the kids were written before they learned to read, and that's no accident. As they got older I let them vet anything I was writing about them. They never shut me down, perhaps because I was always editing myself with an eye toward protecting them from unnecessary exposure. Columns come and go. Your kids are forever.
Click here to read an excerpt from Still Life With Bread Crumbs.
And click here to get Anna's eggs Benedict recipe.
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