Kathryn Stockett

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, when I wrote the help, it was...

Just me kind of pouring my heart out onto the page with no expectations of me.

And I didn't think anybody was going to read it.

And I had 60 rejections from agents to back that up.

And when I sat down to write the second one, instead of just me sitting in a room with the page alone, this time it was...

me in a room with all those readers and all those critics in that room kind of staring me down.

Oh, that's a great question.

Who knows?

I was just born this way.

I feel like I've been in trouble most of my life for something.

And I think it also has to do with the fact that

I, you know, I have a sense of humor and I'm going to always search for the humor in some of the darkest moments.

And I don't see how people get through life without looking for the humor.

And it's, you know, sometimes it works for me.

Sometimes it kind of, I'm told I'm very hard to be married to.

Uh-huh.

After many false starts writing this story, I got fired.

my publisher fired me because it had taken me so long because I guess the material wasn't something they wanted.

And that was the old version.