“Well, Sen. Franken, I think we really need to address the elephant in the room right out of the gate, which is that we’re all counting on you to save us.” —Mark Maron, author of Waiting for the Punch: Words to Live by from the WTF Podcast, in conversation with Sen. Al Franken (D-Minnesota) on the BEA main stage
“Uh-oh. That’s a bad plan.” —Sen. Al Franken, author of Giant of the Senate
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“The most important thing is to imaginatively project yourself into the mind of the person you’re writing about....By the time I finish writing a book, I want to feel as if, if this person walked into this room, I would know how this person walks and talks, I’d want to know facial expressions and the body language and how this person would look at different things.” —Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow, on what makes a great biographer, at the People magazine party at PH-D Rooftop Lounge. Chernow spent the last six years working on a biography of Ulysses S. Grant, out on Oct. 17, 2017. Had Grant walked into the People party, “he would definitely withdraw to the edges of the party,” Chernow says.
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“When I was in junior high, they handed out books in my seventh-grade English class. The boys got 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea—sea monsters! adventure! drama!—and the girls got Cress Delehanty and Cherry Ames, Student Nurse. I wanted to set myself on fire. I complained to my dad, who went to our library and handed me a small green book. It was Crime and Punishment.” —Janet Fitch, author of the forthcoming novel The Revolution of Marina M., on her lifelong love of Russian literature, at the Little, Brown lunch at the Javits Center River Pavilion
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“I’ve been told that I’m embarrassing myself by being so excited about being here.” —Mad Men creator and debut novelist Matthew Weiner, author of the forthcoming Heather, the Totality, at the Little, Brown lunch.
Megan Labrise writes “Field Notes” and features for Kirkus Reviews and is the co-host of the Kirkus podcast, Fully Booked.
Photo above of Sen. Al Franken and Mark Maron courtesy of David J. Crewe.
Photo above of Matthew Weiner courtesy of Jeff Vespa.
