i will miss everything about working with edgar doctorow. ♪ charlie: we now show you edgar doctorow -he made five or six. -- -- five or six appearances on this program. he appeared on the program many times over the years, but here is a look at some of those conversations. e. l. doctorow in his own words. charlie: are you constantly aware of two tracks -- one is writing the best novel you can write and pushing some envelope of the reform -- the envelope of literary form? e.l.: i don't think that way. books begin for me, as i said, as an image or sound. i just pursue that. sometimes it turns into a book, but the only rule is does it work? charlie: how do you define whether it works or not? e.l.: if it works for you, if it keeps it tension, if it is a story worth telling. charlie: if the characters are alive are you. e.l.: if everything. you just feel yourself on the nerve of the book. if you are off the nerve, you can tell immediately. it's not a rational way of working. you don't start with a plan or outline or intention. that's the worst and you can do. you let the looks happen along

charlie: you, more likely than other people -- you could say i know this is the pen of edgar doctorowwhat would it be that you would see? kate: it is cadence. something about the mind is on the page and the way it's written. it would be the language. edgar was a very efficient writer in the sense that he made leaps in a sentence or in a story. you would be moving along much faster than you might with a different kind of writer. there is a book once published where writers were asked to write something you would never write under your own name and so somebody sent me this book and said see if you can figure out which story is by your writer. it wasn't edgar, but it was someone else. i looked at the table of contents and said that title is her title and it was because there's something about the way the mind creates the language in its sentences. charlie: what will you miss the most? kate: i just loved him. i just loved him. i will miss everything about working with edgar doctorow. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ get excited for the 1989 world tour with exclusive behind the scenes footage all of taylor swift's

i will miss everything about working with edgar doctorow. >> rose: we now show you edgar doctorow e.l. doctorow made i think five or six appearances on this program. he is survived by his wife helen and their three children helen, richard and carolyn and grandchildren. he appeared on the program many times over the years. but here is a look at some of those conversations. e.l. doctorow in his own words. >> are you constantly aware of sort of two tracks. one is writer the best novel you can write and two pushing some envelope of literary form. does that make any challenge to you? some sense of creating form? >> you don't-- i don't think that way. books begin for me with as i said, an image or a sound or piece of music. and i just pursue that. and sometimes it turns into a book. but the only rule is does it work. it's always all you want to do is make it work. >> rose: how do you define whether it works or in the. >> well, if it works for you if it keeps its tension if something is really happening on the page if it's a story worth telling. >> rose: and if the characters are alive for y