mr. george packer. this book is fantastic. [applause] >> where did you learn to write? year memoir it is beautifully written but not of some one news seemed destined to be a writer. building for its, airplanes, weapons, and made relationship is physical world but it is for the literary souls but though how do you become a writer? >> i am of assessed with tactile. the book is the object also. i did not grow from all hole in the year if. that is where i develop the visual direct relationship. but it is written to make sure two-seat a good sense of space. by a group of in a house of words. if not participate. >> although to sag will not go that route to. i will be the infantry officer. >> i was so kinetic by expression came from construction. art to. print. drawing. that is halide thought i was effective. iraq forced my hand. i had to express these things that are monumental discovery is that i did not have images for. i had to find the language that the experience could be transferred through words. >> other ways had been cut off and so the letters were the one way you fo

mr. george packer. whose book, by the way, is fantastic. [applause] [applause] ottmar.applause] we will pass this back and forth. >> thank you. >> then, where did you learn to write? because your memoir is beautifully witten, but it is not the book of someone who seems destined to be a writer. you are always in the world of objects. you are always making things and building forts and building airplanes, your building weapons. your main relationship seems to be with physical -- the physical world, not with words. he produced this book, which is a book of a literary soul. did your father teach you? did you apprentice yourself to some great writers? how did you become a writer? >> well, i am obsessed with the tactile. i am obsessed with the idea that we can make objects that live beyond us in some ways. the book is that object come also. i did grow from a hole in the earth in some ways. i spent my time in the dirt and was stone. that is where i developed this visual, very direct relationship with my landscape in my space. i come from a visual background. the book is, i thi