Virginia Evans

You know, it's funny how many people ask me this question, sort of how did you get into the mind of a woman in her 70s and 80s?

And so I've had a chance to give it a lot of thought.

And I think when I was writing the book,

Okay, I'll say Elizabeth Strout, one time I heard this interview where she said that the voice of Olive Kitteridge arrived.

I think she said she was like loading the dishwasher or unloading the dishwasher and sort of this voice of Olive Kitteridge arrived.

And I remember hearing her saying that and thinking that's how I felt about Sybil.

Like I kind of felt like she just arrived and was here with me sort of over my shoulder.

Her voice, which is pretty unique, her sort of personality, her way of interacting with people.

She's very blunt.

She's very direct.

She's very smart.

You know, she's very opinionated.

And that whole package of who she was arrived sort of on my shoulder.

And then I felt it was...

Fairly natural for me to get into the river of her thinking and speaking and writing as I was writing the book.

And I think part of that is probably because I have spent my lifetime enjoying and...

valuing relationships with older people you know people in my family and people I've worked for and worked with and people I've met along the way I've always found that having relationships with people older than me has been really valuable and something I've enjoyed so much during my life I've been that way since I was a child I've just always really enjoyed

having relationships with people older than me.

And so I think almost data gathering, I think maybe as novelists, we're sort of always data gathering or story gathering or, you know, moving through the world in this way of acquiring tidbits of thought or life experience or story, throwing them into this big pit of inside of us.

And then when you