Bret Easton Ellis

And I was not interested in science or algebra or anything else.

And so my grades weren't good.

And so the college guidance counselor at the school said, look, you're not going to get into any of these places.

Here are some small art schools, liberal art schools, where you can study writing that you have a chance of getting into.

And one of the things about Bennington that was so appealing was that they didn't.

look at your SAT scores you didn't have to they didn't look at your GPA they looked at what you sent them like okay I want to be say a painter so you send in your sketches your drawings I want to be a musician you send in tapes right and so I sent in writing and that's basically how I got in

And did – but you said you wanted to get away.

I mean because, again, especially Vermont.

Now everyone just jumps on a Southwest flight everywhere.

But Vermont a few years ago was way the hell out there.

You still can't fly directly to Vermont.

I didn't even – I –

I didn't know where Vermont was when I was in high school.

So were you trying to get away from your family?

It wasn't my family so much.

It was that really was a school that had a reputation as the best writing school in the country at that time.

Second, probably to Iowa.

But still, Bennington had that reputation.

And the added incentive was, again, no GPA, no SAT scores.

And the teachers there were impressive to me.