come directly tow me. i started to figure it out when all the questions were the same. they -- it was the questions which they had to write their essay on. one young woman wrote me and said, i don't know if i have time to read the book can you tell me who the samurai is and where the garredin is? [laughter]. i thought these kids are going to be okay. you know this is our generation coming up. i wrote her and said, you know, read the book. i think for me, because i think every book is a learning process for me. in terms of my culture because i am the first, i don't know about all that needs to be known of both being chinese and of course being japanese. i get a lot wrong. i cringe when i pronounce a japanese word because i know i'm not say itting correctly. i can get away with it.

here i don't know, it's harder to get away with it in the bay area because we are such a melting pot. and so many people who know japanese where i don't. what i discovered i think on the whole, for all cultures both cultures and the writing process itself is the more i write about different cultures the more i realize how much alike we are. and if you take anything away take that. take the fact that all humanity is the same. you know the -- culturesar a background for me it makes you who you are. if you are japanese you bow. if you are chinese you don't. there are certain things that are specific to each culture. but if you are writing characters there are specific things that are everybody. and that's more important to me in that sense. you have the culture's background but if you can

understand why a person who lives in that culture feels the way they do or does what they do i think that's the most important thing. does that answer your question? >> yeah. >> thank you. >> you letting me off? [laughter] do i have another story to tell you? i would if i -- >> you seem very conscious of the writer's process you are aware of how you work. you mentioned you changed from a film major to an english major. can you talk about when you were conscious when you wanted to be a writer. >> as opposed to a film maker? >> yes. >> some writers are not aware of their process as you are and i'm fas nacinated by that.

>> when i took my first film class it was so boring. and it had nothing to do about the story that i was watching on the screen. and everything to do about how many frames per second or per minute or whatever it was. i thought, this is not at all what i thought it would be. then i moved from you know, to the technical aspect film writing course i took. it felt technical because i felt i had to be aware of the camera angles. literally aware it had to go down longshot or closeup and it was interfering with the story line. i graduated from san francisco state and it was creative writing within the english department. i was taking a class much like this. writers on writing and a writer

came to speak to a group of young writers the first writer who came was a poet. and i was i fell madly in love with language. i think that's why i'm probably conscious with the writing process because i began with the foundation of language, which is poetry for me. it made me aware of how to use language. not to over use language. you know things like that that aspects of it. i talk a lot about the writing process for a lot of reasons because i think that if you tell what it really means to be a writer people will think oh , it's not -- i think to a large extent you all think we run with the bulls. you know and you think we are sitting in cafes and i can never write in a cafe because i would watch people too much. how can you sit in a cafe and write a novel?

we all have our process. i think the interesting things to talk about is the process how you do it because we all do it differently. i don't run with the bulls or sit in cafes. this is the way i do it. there are many ways to do it and you have to find your own way. >> around the web i googled through me to see what it looked like i saw the big bridge and it looked industrialized. >> there really is love. >> i did. a real place and how you pick the location. i have family in japan and my kids are are in a bilingual program in san francisco that's japanese. >> i bet she speaks japanese better than i do. my kids might not me. >> when i had the gun i knew there was a [inaudible] and i started writing down things and i thought in my mind's eye, i

think it looks like this. and it would be like that i had a small village in mind. there was a part in time i thought, i could go back to japan and go there and see how it looked. i had in the book and in my heart what i thought it was, i almost knew that if i had gone back it wouldn't be the same. so i made the conscious choice of not going. now that you tell me this i'm thankful i didn't i think it would have destroyed what i created in my head. i thought places are best when they are imagined. i hesitated naming it after a place where my mom said what did exist. i'm glad i didn't go back. making that conscious choice would have changed had i gone back would have changed the

direction of the book a lot. >> when i saw it it was so different than how an imagined from reading your books. >> does that teach you never to look up things. always listen to the writer? [laughter]. >> we have time for one more question. >> can't be our essay question. >> she didn't give us a question yet. i wanted to know what made you think of the title like the samurai's garden? >> oh , know the title story. >> i'm sorry. >> quickly. this is actually a publishing business thing. i had written on the contract because i was reading about samurais and gardens. at the time the contract. i looked and said, oh , the samurai's garden.

now they would put untitled. i put dount samurai's garden not thinking that would really with the title. and what happened was when it was time to choose a title my editor had a god awful title she felt was the most brilliant title since the grapes of wrath. it was like this long and everything was in it but the kitchen sink. love, samurai, garden and sushi. it was a terrible title and i didn't like it and i didn't know what to say i had never disagreed. that was the first time i disagree. i said i don't want to look at my book case and see that book and cringe in 30 years. she called me from new york and said, i don't know why we are going over the title thing let's keep it the samurai's garden.

then i was saying, thank you, god and it became the samurai a garden which in the end worked when you decide hathat samurai is in your class you will see how it works. it works in many, many ways. i'm pleased it stayed the samurai's garden. not of anybody's choice but because it was the one we didn't want to fight over anymore. >> okay. >> [laughter]. >> thank you. i >> i think you wanted something else. >> well, i met the samurai and [laughter] >> thank you. >> thank you, gale so much for coming. >> [applause]. thank you.

announcer: b dreams and good grades aren't enough to get into college. there are actual steps you need to take. finding someone who can help is the first and most important. for the next steps, go to knowhow2go.org.

>> thank you. thank you. i have um... thank you and peace be with you. there's three mike's here so i don't know if i should put this down. um... before i start, i've had

the great honor to - i love to talk at schools. k through graduate school and one question i ask children in america is i ask them how many of you have talked great detail to your grandparents or elders or fore father's about world war ii or the depression or vietnam or civil rights movement, or perhaps if your parents or grandparents came from another country and settled here what it's like. only five to ten percent of the ands come up. if i asked that same question in afghanistan or pakistan or africa 90% of ands come up and i think the as great tragedy we've lost that oral tradition and a rich tradition about folklore and heritage and faith and heritage. to honor that today i'd like to share with you a little story.

it's a hard cover book that came out in march of 2006. anybody have a hard cover. wave it up here. you might not want it after i say this. i got to pick the title. three cups of tea but viking told me they would pick the subtitle and they picked one man mission to fight terrorism one school at a time. i objected because obviously there's- ways to fight tear riz m with education but i said i do this to promote peace and i started 8 years before 911 and this is about promoting peace through education. i've worked afghanistan and pakistan many years and i said we need to have a tribal council. i went to manhattan in the fall of 2005 and the big boss of the whole group, nancy shepherd and

carlin coburn in publicity. we met in a little room and i stated my case and they said, this is your first book so you need to listen to a few things here. first of all only 12 percent of nonfiction books make a profit and 2/3 are pre chosen by the publisher. we'd like to put our marketing arm behind us but your having to fight tear riz m to this. since i grew up in africa and worked pakistan for many years you never settle a deal without driving a hard bargain so i said if the hard cover doesn't do well, i'd like the subtitle changed later on for the paper back. julia and our other board relently pounded away month after month.

i was in pakistan of december of 2006 and there was a new editor on the book and they said they decided to change the title to one man's mission to promote peace. the hard cover didn't do that well. sold 20,000 copies. while the paper back came out on january 30th of this year and since out it's been on the new york times best seller selling over 700,000 copies now. and it's one man's mission to promote peace. and they're still baffleed manhattan because they're scratching their heads the first month because there's only - well no big city book editor did it so to be a best seller you need new york times or the chronicle or boston globes to give you good book reviews. no national t.v. or, m pr so paul said what's going on out

there. i said, you know this is what i think it's about book clubs and women's groups, synagogues, mosques and churches and an incredible amount of book clubs here in the bay view area and about people yearning for piece and looking for the answers of peace. any ways it's been really incredible and aspire together see people from all walks of life i really think can re late to promoting peace one child at a time. we got some news last month that the pentagon purchased 5,000 copies. let me finish it. and it's for counter intelligence training, 101 and mandatory reading for they're course encounter intelligence. this is in tan sa any a.

i went there when i was three years old and my father founded a medical center and my mother started a school. it was a wonderful childhood. i went to school with children from two dozen countries. with jews and christians and hindus and for me that was the way the world was. finally it came time to come back to america. i was in high school and really looking forward to coming back to a place whether i heard about fourth of jewels lies anulies . i got beat up. they said you're not from america. it wasn't in africa that i learned about racism but here in united states. we were completely broke and i

did something real unpopular at the time. four days after high school i joind the united states army. not only to serve my country but to get the,gi bill to continue my education. then i saw young men and women from all across america. from farms and ranches and it matedm made me realize the strength in this country is not from commonality but our great diversity. i had a younger sister named gift of god and christa was a special girl because she suffered from severe epilepsy. she never once complained. she never said across word and it could or would take her an hour or two to line um... up her

clothes and do our homework and get her lunch b bag ready. i'm the five minutes bed to - bus kind of guy, you know? well krista saw the baseball movie called field of dreams. very inspiring movie that takes place in the corn field in iowa and decided for her 23rd birthday she wanted to go see that place. she was living in minneapolis and packed her bags to go to the field of dreams. when my mother went to wake her up on july 24th 1992 she had died in her sleep from a massive seizure and it was devastating for all of us. i was climbing quite a bit and roaming around quite a bit and every summer i would take a month and do something with her. every year we could go to

disneyland and i took her to yosemite. it was very special to do that with my sister. at the time i was climbing a lot, i thought i'm going to pick a big bad mountain to climb in honor of krista. she had an amber necklace she got on the indian ocean coast and i was going to take that and put it on top of,k 2. when i went to,k 2 to climb a mountain and instead a found affair greater mountain to climb. here's the world's second highest mountain. you can put 84, monthe horns here to fill it up. i hope there's no outdoor retailers. two season family camping tents from logan you at the this tenth is a french league on eres tenth

designed for the sahara. this came from north face prototype tenth called the wind tunnel. it was 20 years old when we took it to,k 2. here's our mottly crew of 12 climbers. the gentleman in the white shirt left after one week after he found out there's no alcohol in pakistan. i don't tell you anymore where he's from, but this is - what is this doug? deadly. avalanche. we call this the mother of all avalanches a year after desert storm. intense from spain and you can see the guys running out in their underwear. fortunately nobody was killed in this avalanche. this is the art memorial in honor of, art gillke.

we climbed a lot at night and these for tops of pots and pans that have been carved out in the names of climbers that died on this mountain. we climbed at night and it's difficult because you can only see ten feet for front of you and 6,000s of feet below we heard plates clanging against the rocks and i thought really is this a good way to honor my sister. finally 78 days later it was time to go home. i was weak, exhausted and emaciated but most of all i felt that neck la l necklace and i ft her down. anybody that read the book can you remember what the first chapter is called. it starts with an,f, failure. that's another thing they really objected to in manhattan.

said you can't start a book with the word failure. at least i won that argument. i said you know, our success is originally based in failure and you know what? all of us make mistakes and all of us sometimes fail. sometimes with relationships or investments or fail with jobs. um... i flunked my first driving test when i was 16 and totald the car while parallel parking and some student wills not get into college. really when you fail it's not the end of the road. it's more of an opportunity and away to find a different path. when i come to those moments in life, i think of the perz yen proverb that says when it's dark you can see the star. for those of you that have been there, i failed get a really good sunset picture on,k 2.

this is actually a volcano in mexico but i love this climbing photo to end the climing sequence. so, here's our dirt bag climbers. done with the climb and it's time for me to head back to berkley. i was very weak and fortunately, we were still alive. that year five of 12 climbers that ascending died during the descend. i had to walk five days back to the nearest village to catch a jeep back to civilization. as i got to the village a string of kids started grabbing on to me and as i got near there was a stout, gruff man with a silver grin and he looked at me and he said peace be with you and then he looked at me and shook his a

had had and said chiz l.a. i'm from the midwest and the best translation is what the heck. i was skruf if i and looked pretty bad and he said, son, i'd like you to come to our village but first, you need to take a bath. so, i went down to the river, very filthy, a washed up and we went for tea. in that sorry lame i learned many things. one out of three children there dies before the age of one. usually dehydration or diarrhea induced dehydration. many young men have left the villages to try and get jobs as dishwashers in the cities or work on construction crews or work for foreign climbers and they often have to pull they're resources and sell they're goats and land to bribe somebody. for who is left behind is the

women and they say now they're workload has doubled over the last two decades. i walked into this stli ladies and gentle village and we had yet to have three cup office tea with each other. first cup your a stranger, second cup a friend, and third cup you become family but the process take many years. here in american we have two minutes football drills and 6 second sound bites and 30 minutes power lunches and really it's about three cups of tea and really it's about relationships. i asked about a school and i know thisd the kids disappeared and i asked about school and they were very embarrassed and finally took me behind the village and i saw 84 children sitting in the dirt during school lessons. five girls and 79 boys and writing with sticks in the sand.

i've seen a lot of poverty in africa but when i saw those kids and a young girl came up to me and - it was a cold autumn day and he or she said will you help us build a school and i made a very rash promise and promised to build a school. i was very broke and had to raise 12 thousand dollars and i didn't have a clue how to raise money like that. so i went to the local library. any librarians here. there's one. let's all give them a big and. [applause] so i went to the library, the resource librarian and talked to her and we looked up the name of 580 celebrities and movie stars and i didn't know how to use a computer so i and typed 580 letters.

dear michael jordan, dear sylvester stallone. guess what happened? nothing. then at christmas time i got one check for $100 from tom brokaw and then i saw my climbing ger and i sold it and i sold my car for $500 that i got from my grandfather in a seedy area in oakland. by string i o spring i had only $2,400. my mother invited me to come and talk to the kids. when i got ready to leave, a fourth grader named jeffery looked me in the aye and he said i've got a piggy bank at home and i'm going to help you build that school. west side school raised 65, 300

pennies. it wasn't the celebrities or the sports heroes or movie stars or if i lan throw pears but children reaching out to children half way around the world to help them build a school. what can you buy with a penny the bay area? probably nothing. in montana you can buy 1/2 tootsie roll. but in afghanistan you can buy a pencil. it's not that's so important but education gives a child hope. you know, if you fight tear riz her rorism it's based in fear but the real enemy is ignorance that bleeds hatred. here in america,