Elizabeth Strout

I mean, the moment he comes back from dinner with Flossie, and we realize, oh, the wife doesn't like Flossie.

And then I thought, oh, yeah, okay.

Boom, boom.

And then...

You know, when I got to the sun, I realized, wow, okay, let's do this.

No, I did not.

I did not.

And I was...

interested to fall down.

I don't know, but that's one of the things that came up about Artie.

Like he's at the party and he's asking whoever like-land, you know, do you think there's any?

And I thought, oh, how intriguing.

And I think it's just because he is beginning to have inner interior changes, you know, instead of just being jovial already going through his life, he's, he's beginning to question things and think about things in a whole new way.

And it seemed to me, you know, he studied history and yet he's actually wondering, huh, I wonder if we have free will, you know, it's not like he's the smartest man in the world, but he's perfectly intelligent, but he's not,

super brainy like his son is.

But, you know, I just thought it was interesting to see him wonder about that and then follow through with it.

I know, but it doesn't really feel like it when I'm writing it.

I mean, I know that I'm writing his life.

I do understand that I'm doing it.

But the more I get to know my characters, the more they tell me what they're going to do and how they're going to be.