Elizabeth Strout

But Artie has his interior life.

This is about Artie's interior life coming up against the exterior world, which is what's always interested me as a writer.

Because the person walking down the street, they're just walking down the street, but they have stuff going on in their heads that we'll never know about.

It's fascinating.

I think because of the big secret, the big thing that we're not going to talk about right now.

But, you know, he does go through a real wow moment, you know, and understanding of...

Yeah.

Have you done that yet?

Yeah.

That was my father?

Because I will sometimes get letters.

My father was a professor at the university, and every so often I'll get a letter from somebody whose life he actually changed.

And I can barely remember the person he's taught.

And I realize, but that was my father.

That was what he did with his life, and he didn't live to see it or know about it.

But how interesting that all that was going on, and I didn't have a clue.

He was just my father.

Yes, my parents are both dead.

Right.

And it's sad because they're not there to say, oh, my word, I'm so sorry.