Interview with Lois Lowry by Paul Fuhr

You once cited listening to your grandfather recite poetry as an indelible moment in your life. Is that the
moment at which you said, "I want to be a writer"?
No, those memories of my grandfather date to the time was I was three, four, and five years old. They were an
important part of my emergent literate life, but it was only later--ages eight and nine--when I perceived the possibility of
"being a writer." It was after I had become a voracious reader myself and been exposed to the world of books. Of
course, that may never have happened if I had not lived in a household and with a family that valued literature.

How has living all around the world affected your writing?
I was always a shy and introverted child, not one who flung herself into the social life of childhood or adolescence.
Moving as I did, being thrust into new situations, meant that I was increasingly observant and introspective. All
necessary qualities for a writer. I was constantly absorbing the different, assessing the foreign.

You write that your works, however eclectic, all speak to the importance of human connections. In turn, how
connected are you to your characters?
My own fictional characters become very real to me. I live with them for long periods of time, worry about them, wonder
what decisions they will make, grieve with them, laugh with them, and then say goodbye to them with reluctance but
finality. I close that door and open a new one. It is like an affable divorce. You wish each other well and move on.

How long did you spend researching Number the Stars?
Probably about six months. I did a lot of reading first---and it took a while to find some of the original materials. Then I
went to Denmark. A friend put me in touch with people there who had lived during that time, some who had been part
of the Resistance. I talked a lot to them. I also simply walked around the places that were important in the book.
Smelled the air, felt the atmosphere, even after so many years. I still remember fondly a moment when I was sitting in
an outdoor café in Copenhagen, by myself, and an American couple approached me and asked (speaking loudly and
slowly) if I understood English, because they were lost and needed directions. I felt very Danish myself by then!

Do you ever go back and read your books decades later? If so, do they read differently to you? Do you see
things you didn't see before?
No, I don't, unless I am called upon to read aloud from something, and then I will once again read a passage that I
wrote years before. Sometimes I wish I had rearranged the words, made it flow better (and sometimes I will do that,
make that correction, in reading aloud). I try to remind myself, when I'm writing, to read things aloud so that I will hear
that awkward phrasing before it is in print and immutable.

Do you have a particular creative process?
Nope.

At what point is a manuscript "complete" for you?
I think that when a reader knows a character so well that he will be able to continue that story for himself... That's
when you can end it. Not all the issues in the narrative will be resolved. They aren't ever all resolved in real life. But the
reader can feel the trajectory, can predict things, and can feel satisfied.

Even so, as writer, it is still hard to quit because a computer makes changes and revisions so frighteningly easy. One
is tempted to go back again and again: re-read, revise, change this, change that. You just have to tell yourself: That's
it. No more.

Was writing more of a catharsis during, say, A Summer to Die than it is now?
No, my attitude toward writing hasn't changed over the intervening years. A Summer to Die was based on family
history, of course, but only after years had passed. Autumn Street: same thing. But both were written as fiction, and
the characters created by me---based on real people, but nonetheless fictional. I was able to separate myself from the
real events and be somewhat objective, I think, without being dispassionate. The truly fictional characters in other
books are every bit as real to me as the ones based on people who really existed.

How has the publishing world changed since you were first published?
It's tougher now, more of a business, less a hallowed calling. Things are commercial. The best publishers, the most
genuinely literary, will still rush to pay big bucks to publish and enrich Sarah Palin or Madonna. That's an appalling
thing, I think, but they have to go where the money is. I find that immensely sad, but I understand it. That kind of
publishing prostitution makes possible a niche for people like me. But it's tough time for new authors, I think. Less
risk-taking from publishers.

How has children's literature changed, in your opinion?
Young Adult has changed, become edgier, more issues-generated, I think. There are a lot of fads now that come and
go. Vampires are a good example. They'll be passé soon. Graphic novels are new and exciting and probably will stay
around. There seems to be, still, a place for less trendy authors like me, but sometimes I feel dinosaur-like, as if at
any moment I may become extinct and into my place will move the writers who deal with the slicked-up crypticism of
tweets and posts. WTF. LMAO.

What do you make of the censorship controversy surrounding The Giver? Are you ever upset by it?
I ignore it, pretty much. Most of it is generated by conservative groups, sometimes church denominations, which tend
to take things out of context and not see the wider intent of what the book has to say. They fear thinking, and
especially thinking by the young. I feel sad for their children but I don't concern myself with it unless it begins to
intrude on the rights of others. I greatly admire and appreciate the librarians who battle on behalf of free speech every
day.

You've said that you never intended to write a trilogy. What made you decide you had more story to tell?
I began the second book, Gathering Blue, as a separate thing, an exploration of a different kind of society. It was only
at the end that I realized I could connect it in a vague way to The Giver. Then it made sense, later to proceed with the
third book. And there might be a fourth down the road. What the heck. It's great fun to speculate about different ways
of organizing our world.

Your Newbery acceptance speech provides one of the sharpest, most honest insights into the craft of
writing -- and the generation of ideas -- that I've ever read. Do you enjoy providing insights into your work with your readers? No, I don't have a process. I write intuitively and out of a long history of formal study of literature which, I think, informs my style. I can't codify in any way the way I work and it would be presumptuous -- downright silly -- for me to try to advise or educate young writers.

Readers and critics find religious symbolism in some of your works (The Giver, Gossamer). Does that ever
affect your writing? As you write, do you wonder how your work will be read?
I'm not aware of any of that when I'm writing. I can look back at finished work and see ways to find things in it. And my
writing is certainly in part the product of my upbringing and education, so inevitably some of that will find its way in.
But I don't think about religion, or politics, or myth, or anything beyond a good story and believable characters when I
am writing.

What keeps you motivated to write?
For one thing, it is how I make my living. It's my job. That's a powerful motivator, especially if, as sometimes happens,
I get bored with what I'm working on. But for the most part---it's what I most love doing. It's what I would do even if I had
inherited great wealth and didn't need to provide for myself. To sit at a desk and think about words, their meaning and
cadence and power, is the most satisfying way I can think of to spend my time.

The Giver has been adapted as stage productions and unproduced screenplays. Have you ever considered
writing for the stage and screen?
I've recently written for the stage. An adaptation of Gossamer that has now been produced in three cities (it is
currently in Chicago, and will open in Philadelphia in late April) and I loved doing it. The collaborative aspect of theater
is very different from the solitude of writing a novel and I found it exhilarating. I'd love doing more playwriting.
Screenplays? Not so much.

Crow Call is your first picture book. Please describe your working relationship with Bagram Ibatoulline. Was it simply a case of writing the words and having his art follow, or did you actively work together throughout the project?
I have never met Mr. Ibatoulline. The publisher chose and hired the illustrator. This is almost always how it is done.
And he worked on a story I had already written. I am in awe of his illustrations. He brought the story to a dramatic and
stunningly beautiful life and I am immensely grateful to him.

Your advice to aspiring writers is to read. What have you read recently that merits discussion?
I have pretty eclectic taste in reading. I've loved the Steig Larsson books. Can't wait for the third to be translated. I
found the recent Flannery O'Connor biography very compelling. Also, Reynolds Price's memoir Ardent Spirits and
quite recently, Mary Karr's Lit.