that i probably will never write, it will be a courtroom novel. and scott didn't invent the genre. neither did john grisham. earl stanley gardner was writing courtroom drama in the 1930's and 1940's. "anatty of a murder" came out in 1958. first we have "to kill a mockingbird," which most lawyers and most lawyer authors will tell you is kind of the seminal work of why we got interested. and i started writing a novel as i was approaching my 40th birthday. i wrote most of it on a ferry going to and from work every day. it took me three years. and that book became "special circumstances," story of a murder in a big law firm. it came out in 2000 and spent seven weeks on "the new york times"' bestsellers' list. so for those of you who have bought my books, i thank you, because now i don't have to practice law full-time anymore. >> but all kidding aside, you know, i think crime novelists and readers of crime novels whether it's lawyer books or whether it's private detectives or cops, you know, in my world i'm like -- unlike tony's, i can control the outc

novels aren't true, right?ren't factual. >> that's really an old saw, you know, about novels being lies. novels are much better than lies actually.3y+ lies you have to finally 'fess up to at the end, get caught at. novels you don't have to do that. novel cans actually aspire to be the truth even. >> stephen: will w a capital "t "t"? >> or a little one if you like. >> stephen: you're shooting for one right now with your new novel called "canada." i am offended, sir. you are a great american novelist. why is this not called "america"? (laughter) >> well, because that's not what i wanted to call it. to be an awe or that means you get to decide everything. that's why what i did. i wanted to call it canada. >> stephen: is it about canada? >> well, it's about a family who lives in great falls, montana, and the mother of the father of the family, three kids, rob a bank and the little girl in the family who's 15 runs away, the little boy gets transported across the border into saskatchewan which which is in canada. (la

novels are not any old thing. they have characters beavis the protagonist, conflict, usually and ascending arc of conflict in the drama and the critical thing is novels like most movies have a resolution of the conflict. at the end of the book or the end of the two hours of the movie you know how it turned out. nearly everybody who reads novels recognizes that that is not exactly the way the world is. the world isn't quite so tidy. the world is much messier than that. i will throw out something to you and you can't agree with it or disagree with it and if you disagree vehemently please say so and we will talk about it some more. i would suggest that people -- i am going to get pretty inflammatory. the people who prefer novels to history are people who like their stories tidied up. they like their stories to come to some kind of conclusion. doesn't have to be a happy ending that has to be a ending whereas history doesn't have an end. in real life it doesn't have conclusions. we strive for closure. most of the time

away this bookame upon me a tlan i finished my novel, the ten volume novel that was mentioned before,ent to the store and bought self a new notebook to write anotr nolhi wn m wch was published in person. i always struggle over the name. it is about old people. [tkingver o] inople.tesf [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: around 1983 as i was finishing that manuscript and going on to the second one i ha fe soowow eal with this inner turmoil. [speaking in native tongue] >> translar: ieg wte e fid this is not it. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: i began to get a more clear image in my mindnd n r.n to bring that igeow akinivng akinivng >>nsr:waer difficult time in iran and i am very a shed. suddenly it all translated into somebody knocking at the door at ght and the image began to gr [sin ne ue >> translato as i began to telerend i had written notes about ts nightmare at some int. the body of this book became the peg atto]ef . peg attongue] >> translator: i was anguished and depressed and this book in a sense became an articulation of the this anguish and in a way i had to

. >> i think it is our national novel. if there was a national novel of week, this would be it for the united states. i think it's the favorite book of almost everybody you meet. >> the first time in my life that the book had sort of captured me. that was exciting. i didn't realize that literature could do that. >> i remember reading a copy of my aunt's in jamaica queens. it was the first book ever written by a white writer that discussed racism in ways that was complicate and sophisticated. -- complicated and sophisticated. >> a touchstone in american literary and social history. it's a story gently tugged at the issues of racism. >> she was a champion of people who helped us get liberated from racism in this country. >> harper lee's first and only novel. >> a masterpiece is masterpieces not because they're flawless but because they tap into something essential to us, at the heart of who we are and how -- >> a masterpiece and a mystery. >> of course, one kept hoping and waiting for the next novel. sadly, that never came.

so, i joined national novel writing month, and i tried to write a novel, much longer, in the month of wrote it, i spent the next three months revising it and editing it and making changes to it, and after that i found a self-publisher called createspace. and using that program i self-published my novel and got it out to people so everyone could read it. >> so, you used self-publishing. walk me through exactly how that works. >> so, first, after i finished writing, editing, and revising the novel, i go to the createspace self-publishing website, and from there i can submit my novel and format it in a way so that it will look good in a book with page numbers. and then i design the cover and the fonts that i want to use on the cover. i write out the back cover summary and then after that they assign me an isbn number and then it gets published. >> what's an isbn number? >> an isbn number is an international standard book number. it's a number that's assigned to books so they can be identified when they're being sold. >> are you happy with the way your book turned out? >> yeah, i'm happy

and great russian novels great french novels great english language almost german german certainly. even america and even occasionally american and i don't know if you dick you know melville and so. there was an outpouring of novels i would think there was one hundred years i would think at least a thousand novels a year that's one hundred thousand novels in that century you can put the best of them on one shelf. and so it's always been like this there's always this little spectrum of greatness and then the great tsunami of mediocrity you are called the most influential theorist of writing skills since our wrists. don't know how to really tell the press has anything changed. in there i think since that is. what we mostly do under we understand story. greater depth or with a greater precision that aristotle did but he was looking at the very first works and he had homer and he had escalus and sophocles repartees to guide him but we now understand the difference between conscious and unconscious desires we understand the mechanisms of turning points and the rush of insight we understa

the novel made me realize that that was not true. i have to say that none of us children -- we knew he had written a novel, but who knew? he was not that kind of a person. he was a professor, he had a lot of very serious historical works, a novel is not exactly his strong. but it was evident from that that he really did have an emotional side. my mother was, we always thought, pretty emotional, and also, she did not contradict. she did not like germans, and made it very clear that she would never forgive the germans. as i write in the book, she was very glad to hear that my married name was not going to be albrecht. >> is a diplomat yourself, did you have to wait in your feelings about germans? >> it is very interesting. first of all, i never learned to speak german. i learned many different languages. >> russian? >> french, czech, polish. i never wanted to learn german. what happened over christmas, i now understand why my parents didn't want me home in 1948. christmas of 1947 and 1948. too many things, i think were going on. they s

novels thing about writing from a woman's point of view. but today we'll hear from a writer who know something much more profound about whiskey writing but i will let mahmoud dowlatabadi tell you about that himself. having just published a great novel, "the colonel," and having earlier publishes magnificent epic of rural life in iran, "missing soluch." i have to observe, he's not really a political writer. he simply writes about life in his country. not about the show or the ayatollah, but about the people. and the fact that he has been in prison in the past for this kind of until you something about the cuteness of his writing but i suspect i have learned more about the reality of this country from his beautiful, beautiful book, that i have from 1000 newspaper reports. we should be thankful to him for that, and by the way, reminding those of us in america who have lately been questioning the value of book -- >> as i speak right now -- spent the significance of this particular novel is? [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: very diffic

the novel made me realize that was not true. i have to say up in of his children took -- we knew he had written a novel but who knew? he was not that kind of a person. he was a professor. had written a lot of very serious historical works, and essays and articles. a novel was not his genre but from that we found he did have an emotional side. my father -- mother was -- we always thought pretty emotional and didn't brook any kind of contradiction. she did not like germans. and made very clear that she would never forgive the germans, and as i write in the book, she was very glad to hear my married name was not going to be albrecht. >> host: yeah. as a diplomat yourself, did you have to reign in your feelings about german? are you going to give me a diplomatic answer? no it's very interesting. first of all i never learned to speak germ map. i learned men different languages. french, czech, polish, and i never wanted to learn german. i was in switzerland in school, and what happened was that over the hot christmas, i now understand

and i said, what novel? he'd done the whole thing without ever telling anybody he was going it. and when that -- he was doing it. and when that book came out, i was a million times more excited than i was for any of mine. it's just, it's just an incredible moment when your kids can do something that you know is challenging and can do it really well. and we are back live at our new york studio with author anna quindlen. nine nonfiction books, six -- seven -- six, six in books, object lessons, one thing true, plaque and blue, blessings, rise and shine, every last one. we have about an hour left with our guest. put the phone numbers up on the screen in case you would like to call this and talk with ms. quindlen. you said you're working currently on another nonfiction -- another fiction. right. can you give us a topic, anything about it? >> guest: no, it's still kind of mushy in that way. i'm about 70 or 80 pages in, and you don't even really know exactly what it's going to be like, um, when you're, when you're

a novel was not exactly his genre.but it was evident from that that he really did have an emotional side. my mother was, we always thought, pretty emotional and also didn't brook any kind of contradictions. she did not like germans. and made very clear that she would never forgive the germans. and as i write in the book, she was very glad to hear that my married name was not going to be albrecht. [laughter] >> host: yeah. um, as a diplomat yourself, did you have to rein in your feel beings about germans? -- your feelings about germans? are you going to give me a diplomatic answer on this? >> guest: no. it's very interesting. first of all, i never learned to speak german. i learned many different languages, french, czech, polish, and i never wanted to learn german. i was in switzerland in school, and what happened was that over the christmas -- i now understand why my parents didn't want me home in 1948, christmas of '47-'48, because too many things, i think, were going on. so they sent me to the german part of switzerl

. >> stephen: oh what a novell idea.ak a man's heart. because evidently, folks, evidently, and i did not know this, there's more to a supreme court ruling than just the first page. (laughter) >> stephen: here's what it said on page two. >> as we're reading through this again, we're reading now that the entire law has been upheld, wolf. >> the mandate is constitutional. >> the entire affordable health care act is upheld as constitutional. (laughter) (cheers and applause) (laughter) >> stephen: thank you. so evidently my colleagues on cable news jumped the gun. well, that happens to the best of us. just look at last week's colbert report book nook. all right, it is 11:05. we are waiting on the book. any moment i expect-- okay, and the book is just in, the book, it's a tale of two cities, classic charles dickens novel. let's get right to the story, folks. i've got it right here. here we go. it was the best of times-- there you have it, folks, breaking news from page 1. it was the best of times. now while we don't have all t

he turned out 11 novels and more than 600 short stories.d somewhere in orbit around the sun there is an asteroid named bradbury. here on earth, a space shuttle prototype named after the starship "enterprise" from ""star trek"" completed its final journey today to its new home in new york. carried by barge past the statue of liberty and lower manhattan. nasa use "enterprise "for testing but it never flew in space. a crane lowered it on the flight deck of the uss "intrepid" where it will begin its new mission as a museum piece. a decades-long search for an american airman comes to a surprising end. "on the road" with steve hartman is next. the medicare debate continues in washington... ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female

are working on either a screenplay or the great american novel. with you, what is it?f those. oh, hello. (chuckles) uh, same subject? no, different subjects. different subjects. any particular period? uh... uh, i'm writing a fantasy novel about a young boy who discovers his destiny. okay. good. well, good luck with that. thank you. and now we get back into the game, and you have command of the board, so you pick our next clue, please, aaron. let's do abbreviations for $600, please. what is master of social work? ambrose-ia, $1,000. who is ambrose bierce? shakespeare's women, $200. who is juliet? shakespeare's women, $400. who is lady macbeth? shakespeare's women, $600. who is desdemona? $800, shakespeare's women. who is kate? shakespeare's women for $1,000. and that shakespeare woman is miranda. back to you, kathy. you did well in that, uh, category. abbreviations after your name for $800. what is licensed practical nurse? abbreviations for $400. what is veterinary medicine? abbreviations for $1,000. what is a fellow of the royal society? for $1,000. going postal for $

his novels in particular.e's written a new novel that is very much sort of a latter day update of marjorie morningstar, and it's called "the law giver." and it's about a bunch of people trying to make a movie about the life of moses. and there is a latter day marjorie morningstar at the center of this, and i think it's just amazing that this man whose first novel was published by simon & schuster about 61 years ago has returned to simon and zeuser and is still going strong at 94. >> host: morgan? >> guest: well, i'm very excited about -- [inaudible] new book. a year ago he started to report on the killing of osama bin laden. mark is the author of "black hawk down," probably the preeminent chronicler of the special forces and military actions in the u.s. today. and, you know, he -- jerry bruckheimer called mark and said do you want to do this story, and mark called me and said, well, jerry's going to make a movie, yeah, we probably should do the book. mark wasn't sure. he said i've got to be sure i've got stuff

the novel made me realize that that wasn't true. none of the children knew she was in that kind of person. he was a professor. he had written a lot of historical work and essays and articles and the novel wasn't exactly his genre but it's from that that he did have an emotional side. my mother was we always felt pretty emotional, and also didn't have any contradictions. she didn't like germany and made a very clear that she would never forgive the germans. as i write in the look she was glad to hear that my married name was not going to be all right -- albright. >> host: as a diplomat yourself, did you have to change your feelings about germans? >> guest: i'm going to give you a diplomatic answer on this. it's interesting. first of all, i never learned to speak german. i learned many different languages and trying to check polish and trying to learn german i never went to school to what happened what happened i knew my parents wanted me on the 1948 christmas of 47, 48. i never wanted to learn german, and i have to say because i also

novels don't come out of negative feelings. you couldn't write with the discuss her, -- with disgust or contempt. >> lionel represents something. he represents a particular sort of human being who many live in terror of. >> i think he is an example of it. they are enjoying that considerable, and somehow capture the imagination of england. you wanted of that is captured by these marginal, as you say, undeserving humans. >> he was brutally generic. in the great city, where there are young man that looked pretty much exactly like that. >> he is so obsessed with celebrity and material success. >> you can make a laborious and historical case for 70 years. it is one of the symptoms. they are embarking on that, lee rose earlier than any other country with the exception of holland, perhaps. we had our revolution a century before the french. we got further along. >> to do you like england? >> i am as attached to it as you expect. >> it is an affectionate. >> de you think that england is above reproach? >> no one is above reproach. >> i

but he tells us in an interesting aside, i found myself reading novels. unusual thing to admit you were doing in the 1840s. he says not novels of a trashy sort, but works by james cooper and bowart linton and men of that stamp. if you will endure one last anecdote, you know the story about cooper and his wife. james cooper was a lawyer boy training living in upstate new york he married a beautiful young girl, the young girl said to cooper, just before the wedding, "each month she receives four novels from london." and i read them before deciding that they're appropriate for her to see. and i hope you, after you are married will perform the same office. cooper said, yes, sir, i certainly will. and having read the first of them, cooper, said, hell i can write better than this. apparently a true story. in subsiding i must say that if you want, seriously, learn ulysses grant and get a real sense of what he was look you must read the memoirs. the story of the writing of the memoirs which itself has made an important book in the last couple of years, he is dyin

waiting for the next novel become out in january is called the fifth assassin. i am three quarters through working on now. they're putting together the cover. it will be out very soon. so those are the plans for the future. a couple more questions. >> could you let us know any ideas of what you're working on? you are able to show a lot of things, hole back left things like, for instance, mount rushmore. i had no clue of the back story. could you tell us which are working on? >> the question is on decoded, what are the new topics, like mount rushmore and listen, went to mount rushmore and we showed people the secret hidden room that is hidden behind abraham lincoln said. that is an awesome outdoor -- the show is called brad meltzer's decoded. that's the best title of all time. what i said to my wife, what do we having for brad meltzer finish i? yesterday we brad meltzer chicken. she said you can go sleep on brad meltzer's couch. [laughter] by the truth was, i love when we do the coda. i love we get to go to mount rushmore and find the hidden room that is not abra

it's an amazing novel.and i hope in the course of our discussion i'll be able to make clear why, but unit, just as a bit of a teaser, you know, it answers what has been in its own way, a question for four years, namely why in the world did anybody of any good sense want to do this. it proposes a novelistic answer to the question. the more it offers a very, to me, amusing account of how the 18 minute gap, which was a famous deletion from one of the tapes that president nixon it secretly been recording in the oval office, how it occurred. isn't just delightful. and the neatest part of it is you don't have to be a watergate buff. it has incredible internal velocity as a novel from the very first page. and it's, on top of being a significant novelistic achievement, and it's also just a damn good read. so, so my first question for tom, do you prefer tom or thomas? thomas mallon is a renowned historical novelist. he's written about a number of incidents in american history. but my first question is, given that, w

c-span: and you read the "monster" knowing this, stephen crane's novel? >> guest: i knew that it had something to do with a man disfigured in fire and i was riabitt dn knnythtaan didn't know crane's work at all i somehow had missed "the red badge" and his other great short stories, so... c-span: where were you living when you did this? >> guest: when.. c-span: when you read the "monster"? >> guest: when i read the "monst i li issse at twa benks d shy t a s sting about for another idea, but i really wasn't thinking of doing another biography, so itind of came out of the blue. c-span: what was your first biography? >> guest: it was of the new yorker magazine editor katharine it spanat gn teedth g: well, i was a fan of the new yorker and of e. b. white's writing in particular. when i was in graduate school in boston, letters of e. b. white were published and i read it and thought that it was a wonderful love story, really, about a man otth. tio i became very interested in katharine white and started reading a little bit about her, and then during the summer

it's a famous novel by victor hugo of france. a gentle young man with a severely deformed spine falls in love with a dancer, but the story ends in tragedy. the story raises questions about how we value other humans. she thought that would strike the right core with today's young people. on a university campus in shanghai, students form a long line. thy want to see them perform "the hunchback of notre dame." the troupe sometimes takes the show to university to expose students to chinese opera. ♪ >> reporter: for many students, it was the first chinese opera they had ever seen. this scene is not found in hu hugo's novel. the story draws to a close. the leading actor dances with the body of the young woman, who is dead. european dance inspired the choreographer to create the scene. the young audience loved it. >> translator: i assumed chinese opera was boring, but the performance was marvelous. >> the west meets east in a way i've ever seen before. terrific. >> translator: it's important to preserve the tradition and at the same tim

haircut on the margins for collateral for stuff that the banks were posting so he did a number of novel methods of his own to address the problems over there and they did have an effect although it took a few weeks to maybe a couple of months and i should also mention that on the mit mafia i know you brought to my attention a few other folks i just want our audience to know papademos who people remember stepped in as the technocrat in greece and also larry summers we all know him moving on though as far as global cooperation or discord are you saying then that everybody is kind of singing coombe i can honestly speaking and we are seeing economic warfare or is it just taking place in a different arena. well there's definite discord on the fiscal side and we're seeing some blowback here in the us for instance a d.o.j. the department of justice here is investigating l c h clear net and who are they they're the biggest clear of interest where it swaps and other derivatives in europe and their biggest competitor is a c.m.e. group here in the u.s. and together they almost split down the middl

they were willing to invent different different economic you can imagine metric models and employ a novel tools and that's what we've seen during the bernanke administration at the fed where q.e. is now become the norm whereas that was something that when you when even a thought of just a few years ago was something relegated to japan. and you mentioned to you at the z.b. some of their programs earlier we spoke well yeah. you know you only have to go back to november early november of two thousand and eleven and a distinguishing point in time was when druggy took over the e.c.b. because trish a his predecessor was kind of a hawk at least in central bankers terms and they really didn't go along with the program so when drug came in he almost immediately announced these were form these packages he lowered capital requirements decrease haircuts on the margins for or on collateral for stuff that the banks were posting so he did a number of novel methods of his own to address the problems over there and they did have an effect although it took a few weeks to maybe a couple of months and i shou

i think you have to know the literature before you write a novel. one sits down and reads novels that came before. it should be the same thing with song literature. i think aspirign song -- aspiring songwriter had better know what came before them. first also they do not regret what has been written already -- rewrite what has been written already, or they know what the challenges are to find new ways to say some things, to explore musical areas which they're doing. i think the hip-hop generation has really opened up again with the next wave of creative writing is. it is absolutely stunning. tavis: marilyn bergman gives a thumbs-up to hip-hop. >> i do not think that is new to me. tavis: it would be to a lot of people. talk about storytelling, talk about love of words, talk about experimentation with sounds. i do not know of anything else that is being written in popular music. tavis: that is that creative and innovative. >> i think there are two books that have been written recently. steven sondheim, he is the best areas. he is the best. in the crea

wasn't that the novel? when is the last time you heard anybody say we must food to war with china over time one but the world loves this guy. he is 75 year-old as glasses and sandals and peace and harmony and reincarnation prepare you cannot get enough of him but if the american public retooled the evil economies wine put to radioactive pellets in the yak butter is it that appear problem? they said beijing will just the ninth it. that is the beauty. again and again the end again. they can say we did not do that to the dali lama. angel says please don't use that expression. so they plant the rumor and things take off from their. this is the first book i have written involving china. there was a challenge involved you have to make up the names for characters and charles dickens was pretty good. [laughter] but chinese names are complex. who can recite the full name of the blind activist seeking refuge? but even end over there using the initials it looks like kfc and looks like they are promoting pride chicken.

okay. >> you heard of the novel? >> of course not. its "r" rating and its quirkiness will keep ratings down in the $15 million region. >> we have a 20-year-old to keep us briefed on this. >> we do. and speaking of quirky, the romantic comedy "seeking a friend for the end of the world" also debuting, it's for older audiences and it's gotten so-so reviews, but carell loyalists may help it earn as much as $10 million. >>> and this comes to us from new york city where dreams are in the air, the air guitar, that is. this is funny. contestants did their best rock star impersonations, competing in the regional finals for the u.s. air guitar championships. nice one, buddy. some pseudo musicians say they spend months honing their skills, even using real guitars to learn where their fingers go. one of the contenders was eight months' pregnant. she did earn some respect, but someone else took the title, moving on to the national championship. >> of course she did. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today

it's a famous novel by victor hugo of france. a gentle young man with a severely deformed spine falls in love with the care-free dancer. but the story ends in tragedy. the story raises questions about how we value other humans. she thought that would strike the right chord with today's young people. on the university campus in shanghai students form a long line. they want to see shi and her colleagues perform the hunchback of notre dame. the troupe sometimes takes its shows to universities to expose students to chinese opera. for many students it was the first chinese opera they had ever seen. along with many of those in opera, this is not found in hugo's novel. shi wanted to demonstrate the unique energy of chinese opera. the story draws to a close. the leading actor dances with the body of the young woman, who is dead. european dance inspired the choreographer to create this scene. the young audience loved it. >> translator: i used to think opera was boring, but the plot intrigued me and the performance was excellent. >> transl

idea that were not needed as much paper that you could have this one electronic tool downloading 15 novels on to that or even are no books from the library on to your i-pad in those sorts of things but on the other hand certainly the book i wrote is meant to be taken out on the trail the don't have computers are connected to the artists that's the hope that if you're in your 70 he compiled a book editor back pack and i know that as an educator which download the summit is writing and take it with us on a sheet of paper and it's hard to read from a think a book hangs together better to some of these books and thinker children's books for you hold it in your lap of a quick mind retaken that side with you. >>> and i also work with the particular environmental agency that is important for people to know about. it's the largest jewish and berman took colonization the country went to a lot of work about sustainable behavior commissioned to create sustainable committees the jewish world and beyond june are about sustainable food and how to think about our food systems and how are the animals and