[conroyking]{.underline}

\[applause\]

Jonathan Yardley:

Thank you. Thank you. What a wonderful crowd on what a dreary day. You
should have been here at 10 o'clock this morning. As your reception
suggests, you seem to know who I am, and so you know that my principle
job is to pass public judgment on other people's books not to help other
people sell their books. So when this festival started in 2001, I made
it a rule that, yes, I would be happy as a staff member of the
"Washington Post" to introduce some speakers, but that I would only
introduce speakers who are my friends and whose books, I therefore,
cannot review. As you can imagine, I don't therefore have many
introductions to make.

\[laughter\]

Pat Conroy and I have known each other, as we were just figuring, for
quite close to three decades. We think it was in 1975. I was living in
Miami; I was the book editor of the "Miami Herald." Pat had published a
book that, very rapidly, disappeared called "Boo." And then he published
a quite wonderful book called "The Water Is Wide," an account of
teaching children on an off‑shore island in South Carolina that you
probably know was made into an equally ‑‑

\[applause and cheering\]

 ‑‑ an equally wonderful movie called "Conrack." And one night or one
day in Miami, I got a call from this guy named Pat Conroy who said he
was in town. And I said, "I'd be delighted to see you." And he said,
"Well, actually," ‑‑ and I know you will find this, in retrospect, as
incredible as I do ‑‑ he wanted to write a piece about me.

\[laughter\]

He did, but it never appeared.

\[laughter\]

Pat and I have remained friendly off and on over the years. I'm seeing
him today for the first time in probably 15, and meeting for the first
time his wife, Cassandra King, who is herself an author and who will
come up to the podium with him. Pat, literally, does not need any
introduction. I would just like to tell you that in addition to what you
already know that he's a wonderful prose stylist and a master
storyteller, he's also a human being of great compassion and generosity.
Pat Conroy and Cassandra King.

\[applause and cheers\]

Cassandra King:

I would like to talk about Pat a little bit. And also talk about my
book, but I have to put those two together to talk, because in some ways
Pat and being married to Pat helped me finish writing a book that I had
started writing several years ago. And I lacked the courage to finish
writing this book or to seek publication for this book.

I had published my first book when I met Pat Conroy, but my second book,
"The Sunday Wife," I had started working on, and in doing so was working
out some things in my personal life, because it was highly
autobiographical in nature. And anytime I started working on this book,
it would become too painful to me. And also, I didn't want people
knowing these things about me. I didn't want to share my, you know,
hurts and feelings and some of the things that had happened to me with
other people. So I was very hesitant to ever seek publication for this
book.

But one of my favorite sayings is: when the pupil is ready, a teacher
appears. And in some ways I think that Pat Conroy was sent my way to
teach me some things about writing. And that's what I wanted to share
with you today, because the old saw that we hear so much, "write what
you know" ‑‑ what they don't tell you about that is sometimes it's a
very painful process. And who is the writer in America who typifies that
more than any writer that we know of? And that's Pat because he has
shared his personal experiences. So much of everything he writes is
based on his personal experiences. As a matter of fact, I'm always
telling him ‑‑ he will start telling me some story happened, and I say,
"Wait a minute. Didn't I read that in "Beach Music?"

\[laughter\]

You know, something? And I say, "You mean that really happened?" And so
finally end up just saying, "Pat, you know, you ought to consider
writing fiction every now and then. You'd probably enjoy it."

\[laughter\]

But when I met Pat and we married, as I said, my first book was
published. And after our marriage, then we sort of settled down to begin
our life together. And he was working on "My Losing Season," his book
that's out now ‑‑ it's a sports book ‑‑ and asked me what I was working
on. And I did not tell him about this other manuscript I had. Instead I
told him I was writing a book about a rodeo rider. And I'll never forget
the way that Pat looked at me with great love and admiration in his eyes
when he said, "Oh, I didn't know you'd ever ridden in the rodeo."

\[laughter\]

And then I had to admit, "No, it's totally fiction. I did some research
on rodeos, and I've actually been to a rodeo before."

\[laughter\]

And then he started looking at me a little differently. And, "This is
what you want to write about? A rodeo? You sure about this?" And I said,
"Well, you know, I do have this other manuscript, and this is about ‑‑ a
lot of it is based on my former life as a minister's wife in a small
town. But I'm not sure I'm comfortable with anyone reading that. It's
very painful. A lot of my experience ‑‑ wonderful experiences but also a
lot of very painful experiences." And he said to me, "That is the book
you need to be writing. That's the life you lived. That's the book you
need to be writing."

So because of his encouragement and the examples of his fiction, the way
he took events from his life and fictionalized them ‑‑ sort of
fictionalized them ‑‑ for the rest of us readers, then, I thought, "If
he's got the courage to do that and face what he's faced from his family
and the Citadel and, you know, all these teachers and administrators and
so forth, then I'm going to do it." And so I owe a lot to my husband,
but I owe him as a reader and as a writer. Because I don't know that I
would have ever had the courage to turn "The Sunday Wife" into a book
otherwise.

So I would like to let Pat come forward and speak a few minutes, and
then we will take some questions if you have them. Pat Conroy.

\[applause\]

Pat Conroy:

Very good. Very good. Thank you so much. Sandra, thank you very much.

The Citadel sent me this hat ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ and asked me to wear it on tour to publicize my college. The Citadel
has not talked to me in 30 years ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ so I was glad to oblige them.

Let me tell you something about how Sandra's tour began. I wanted to be
the supportive husband, and Sandra began her tour of "The Sunday Wife."
So I became her driver through the South \-- her designated driver. And
I drove her all over the South to all her book signings. I wanted to be
the supportive husband. But I knew I also had to stand in the background
like a Henry James manservant. And we came to this one, big talk in
Birmingham, Ala., and I was asked to introduce Sandra like she just
introduced me. And so I did. And the guy that was introducing me asked,
"How'd you like to be introduced, Mr. Conroy?" And I said, "I'd like to
be introduced this way: please call me Mr. Cassandra King."

\[laughter\]

And so that's how I was introduced, Mr. Cassandra King. I got up, did a
pithy, wonderful introduction and sat back down. During her signing, a
woman came up to me, and she said, "Sir, I did not come here tonight
because of your wife. I came here because of you. I have read every
single thing you have ever written. I've read every essay. I read sing
every single article. I know your work better than anybody in America.
But I want to tell you, sir, that I do not think you will ever write a
better novel than 'Carrie*.*'"

\[applause and laughter\]

Y'all are much smarter than I am.

\[applause and laughter\]

I looked at this poor woman like she was nuts.

\[laughter\]

And in the hesitation between us, she then stuttered out, "I also
thought you did a very good job with 'The Shining.'"

\[laughter\]

I still ain't got it.

\[laughter\]

And finally so much time had passed at that I had to pretend I was
Stephen King for the rest of the evening.

\[laughter\]

What I love about writing is I'm always surprised. The things people do
and say surprise me. Sandra and I spent the summer in Maine \-- Sandra
completing her new novel, me reading newspapers. And I was reading the
newspaper one day when two garbage men came by as they did every week.
And they could see me through the window so they waved to me. I waved to
them. Then I was surprised to hear a knock on the door, thinking I had
packed the garbage wrong.

\[laughter\]

The two garbage men said, one of them said, "Sir, we know who you are.
We know who your wife is, and we have left you e‑mail messages on your
Web sites, and we hope this visit is not an imposition."

I said, "Garbage men where I come from do not use words like
'imposition.'"

\[laughter\]

And I said, "How can I help you?"

And the garbage man who was the speaker pointed to his friend and he
said, "You probably know my friend. He has become world famous in the
last week."

I looked at the main garbage man and ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ he was not famous to me in the past week. I said, "No, sir, I do not
know."

And he said, "Sir, I want to write a book. I was on the 'Oprah Winfrey
Show' just last week. You may have seen it."

And I said, "You know, I missed it. I'm very sorry now ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ but I missed the 'Oprah Winfrey Show' which you were on. Why were
you on Oprah's show?" And this is why I love the world and I love
writing.

He said, "Sir, I am a trainer of seeing‑eye horses."

And I'd just seen "Seabiscuit." I was thinking of poor, blind people,
you know \--

\[laughter\]

\-- going around a track.

\[laughter\]

And I said, "You must be a very skilled man."

\[laughter\]

He said, "Sir, what you don't know is that we train with these Maine
marsh tackies. They're 90 pounds, and they're the size of dogs. And I
would like to write a book about this."

And I said, "I will get you to my agent." And so I did. But the reason I
love the world ‑‑ and, Sir, you're not seeing what exactly I'm saying ‑‑

\[laughter\]

I hate it when my signer has a speech impediment.

\[laughter\]

I want to tell you about my father's dying and his death. And my father,
the worst father that ever lived on planet Earth, let there be no
mistake. I loathed and hated him from the time I was a kid. I remember
him beating my mother when I was a baby. And I grew up in a house so
full of hatred it still stuns me to this day, and it will follow me to
my grave. I'm now old enough to know that.

But after "The Great Santini," my father read the book and hated the
image of himself. You know, my father did the most amazing thing. He
changed himself. And by the time my father had died ‑‑ and I thought I
would never say this ‑‑ my father had become a good man. And I really
thought I'd never say this \-- my father had become a good father.

So when he was dying, I went and interviewed him. And I wanted to make
his death easier, so I interviewed dad about everything he'd done in the
Marine Corps. Everything he had done during warfare. And I found out to
my astonishment my father had been an extraordinarily brave Marine
aviator. He had been incredibly brave. And he had killed a great many of
our nation's enemies. And I was doing this. He finally said, "Son, I
finally realized why you're doing this. You're going to write a book
about me, aren't you?"

And I said, "Yes, I am, Dad. He says, "What's it going to be called?" I
said "The Death of Santini." He said, "Great title, Son. Makes me feel
great sitting here, lying here."

\[laughter\]

And then he said something. He said, "Any movie interests?"

\[laughter\]

I said, "Dad, they're all after it. Paramount. I mean, Warner Bros.
Every one of them are after it. There's going to be a bidding war for
it."

"What are they talking?"

"Millions, Dad. Millions."

He said, "I always was your best subject, Son.

\[laughter\]

The critics say your career went downhill after 'The Great Santini.'"

And he said, "Who are they talking about playing me?"

And I said, "Redford."

\[laughter\]

I said, "Redford. Newman." I said, "They're even thinking about Robert
Duvall."

My father said, "I'm sick of midgets playing me."

\[laughter\]

My father then with great vigor went back into this, thinking there were
millions of dollars on the line. And I could see that my father had been
so attracted to Hollywood, so attracted to the hype of his life. Then he
began dying in earnest. And we started calling all the family together.
And my sister Carol came down from New York. My brothers from Columbia
came down. He was in my sister Kathy's house in Beaufort.

And we started doing six‑hour shifts. And I drove up one day \-- and dad
would be dead in two days so this was at the very end \-- and I heard my
sister Carol screaming at my father. Screaming. And she was saying
this ‑‑ I could hear her from the yard ‑‑ "You got to tell me you love
me, Dad. You got to tell me you're proud of me, Dad. You've never said
it in your whole life, and you got to do it before you die. You just got
to." Screaming. Screaming. So I go inside to where Dad is dying. And I
motion for Carol to come have a talk. And Carol comes out, and she's
completely distraught, and she says, "He's never told me once in my
entire life that he loves me, Pat. Not once." And I said, "Carol,
there's a couple of things you need to know here. Dad is dying. He is
not going deaf. 

\[laughter\]

And you also must know this \-- that's Don Conroy dying in that next
room. It is not Bill Cosby. And we've known this all of our life, Carol.
And we got to let Dad die at least quietly. It is not the way he let us
live, but that is what we must do."

So I go back into the room where my father will die. And he's weak,
weak‑voiced, and already it was starting to happen. And we walked back
in --when something in my family, I don't know, just read my books; you
know that nothing is normal in my family. I think, at least, I've gotten
that across to you.

We settled Carol down, and to my utter astonishment by my redneck
brother‑in‑law, Bobby Joe Harvey, walks into the room. And when I call
Bobby Joe a "redneck," I do this only because that's what he calls
himself. He calls himself "the Conroy family redneck, and we need a lot
more just like me."

\[laughter\]

Bobby Joe walks in. And I swear before God this happened. And Bobby Joe
goes, "Hey, Old Man." My father in one of the last things he ever said
on earth said this: "I love you, Bobby Joe.

\[laughter\]

I'm proud of you, Bobby Joe."

\[laughter\]

And my sister went off ‑‑

\[laughter\]

‑‑ like a Roman candle.

\[laughter\]

Ladies and gentlemen, I suggest to you this \-- with this family that I
was born into, I will never go hungry.

\[laughter\]

Thank you very much.

\[applause\]

Sandra informs me there are questions and answers? Questions?

Cassandra King:

There's one there.

Female Speaker:

When's your next book coming out? Will it be ‑‑

Pat Conroy:

We hope in my lifetime.

\[laughter\]

Female Speaker:

\-- fiction? Nonfiction? Biography?

Pat Conroy:

Yeah, I've got a cookbook coming out next year ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ and I, then, have started a new novel which I hope will not be
published posthumously. That's just my fondest hope. It takes me awhile.

Female Speaker:

Are they making a movie of "Beach Music?"

Pat Conroy:

They say that, but they lie a lot.

\[laughter\]

Female Speaker:

And are you still happily married?

Pat Conroy:

Yes.

Female Speaker:

Pat, did your mother really write the letter that Lillian gave to Ben
when he had his 18th birthday?

Pat Conroy:

Word for word.

Female Speaker:

I'm glad.

Female Speaker:

Cassandra, I just want to tell you I loved "The Sunday Wife." It was
incredible. I wanted to ask you two questions. First of all, the
character in "The Sunday Wife," what do you think it was that made her
settle for the love that became obvious to us readers that was not
really love, more like this selfish guy that I wanted to hurt throughout
the whole book?

\[laughter\]

And, second of all, what do you think that experience did to the
character's faith?

Cassandra King:

That's a question I've not had before. I think that my character settled
for marriage without much love in it because so many people do. It's
something I hate to say that I did as well. And I see this in a lot of
men and women that I know who get into a loveless sort of marriage and
don't know how to get out of it.

Pat Conroy:

Except me?

Cassandra King:

Except ‑‑

\[laughter\]

What did the experiences do to her faith? I hope that it strengthened
her faith, because I think anytime we question our faith, then it's got
to be strengthened in the process.

Female Speaker:

Hi, this question is for Mr. Conroy. I was just wondering, with
everything that's happened in your life, how are you able to focus in
and channel in on what, exactly, you wanted to put in your book? Because
I've had a difficult life as well, and I have a hard time trying to
figure out exactly what to put down, because there are so many things
that happened. So how do you decide what's going to go in, and how do
you channel that?

Pat Conroy:

The first thing you have to get over is the fear of hurting your family.
I found I enjoyed hurting my family.

\[applause and laughter\]

And when I knew I had been truly successful was when "The Great Santini"
was published, my parents were in divorce court. And my mother took my
book, handed it to the judge and says, "It's all there."

\[laughter\]

Male Speaker:

Pat, have you forgiven Barbra Streisand yet?

\[laughter\]

Pat Conroy:

That million dollars went a long way.

\[laughter\]

Male Speaker:

Mr. Conroy, when I bought "The Losing Season," I didn't have great
expectations. I was thinking it was going to be a sports book. I cried
through most of it. Thank you for that. And my question is \-- have you
reached a reconciliation with the Citadel? You discussed it in the end
of the book.

Pat Conroy:

The Citadel and I have had a ‑‑ my relationship with my dad has looked
good ‑‑

\[laughter\]

> compared to my relationship with the college. And I thought "The Lords
> of Discipline" had broken that relationship forever. Then the girls
> came along. And because I championed women going to the Citadel, I've
> never seen anything like that reaction of the \--. Guys were leaping
> out of cars to shoot me the bird in Charleston. Guy tried to beat me
> up in a Hardee's in Ravenel, S.C., so I thought this was over. Then
> the girls came to the Citadel. And what happened ‑‑ I knew it would
> happened. The Citadel as a society fell in love with the fabulous
> young women we were attracting.
>
> And when they asked me to speak at graduation a couple of years ago,
> and the only group I'd spoken to in 30 years was the English Club in
> 1974 ‑‑ but when I spoke at the graduation, the president of the
> college, Gen. Grinalds, he would turn to me each time one of the women
> \-- there was 10 women that graduated that year \-- and he says, "I
> got her for the Marine Corps. She's going to be an Air Force fighter
> pilot." And these kids are coming across, and one young woman came up
> to after a football game. And she said, Mr. Conroy, thanks for
> fighting for us, Sir." I said, "It was a pain in the butt. I would
> never do it again ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ I thought those guys were going to kill me." Then she said, "You'd
be proud of us, Sir. We're kicking butt, Sir."

\[laughter\]

And they were, they were.

\[applause\]

Male Speaker:

You have quite a sense of humor, Mr. Conroy, which I didn't expect from
reading your books.

\[laughter\]

Could you tell us how it developed in you?

Pat Conroy:

I didn't hear ‑‑

Male Speaker:

How it \[unintelligible\] ‑‑

Cassandra King:

Sense of humor. Your sense of humor.

Male Speaker:

How did your sense of humor developed in you because I didn't ‑‑

Pat Conroy:

It developed when ‑‑

Cassandra King:

Yeah, having such a rough life, how'd you develop such a sense of humor?

Pat Conroy:

To survive that rough life. And, you know, we had to have it. And the
kids of Santini. We developed humor to even talk about Dad. You know, we
had to do it to get through. And we used to roar laughing. Once he left
the room. He had to leave the room.

Cassandra King:

He had to leave the room first.

Male Speaker:

There were a hot of similarities between my plebe year at the Citadel
and yours, and I enjoyed that aspect of the book. And I think I might
have stayed if the women had been there when I was there.

\[laughter\]

I was interested in the sections that you talk \-- I was fascinated by
the basketball stories that you had. And the sarcasm was kind of a, that
seems to be a hallmark of these guys that come out of the Citadel. And,
you know, this biting sarcasm. And I looked for any kind of tenderness
or comraderie between you and your teammates, and I had a lot of trouble
finding it. Do you think that's a product of that environment?

Pat Conroy:

The tenderness in a ‑‑ "Guys, I'd like to show you little tenderness . .
." ‑‑ it didn't exist in that society. Where I found it is where I've
found \[audio skip\] now. You know, I went back there, and we got to
know each other. I didn't know him. I didn't know where they were from.
And one of the wives of the team said, "If you were a girls, you would
have known the first night. You'd have known everything." And we didn't
know one single thing about each other, and it was not encouraged. And
we got to know each other after I started writing the book, not before.

Male Speaker:

Mr. Conroy, many years ago Rick Atkinson, who's appearing here today,
wrote a book about the West Point class of 1966. It was an inspiring
work. That was the West Point class who lost the most members of any
class in Vietnam. And Gen. Clark, of course, was a graduate of that
class. Is there anything in you to write about some of the inspiring
classes at the Citadel?

Pat Conroy:

Well, "My Losing Season" I did write about, you know, my senior class,
and one of the managers of the basketball team was killed in Vietnam.
One of them, Al Kroboth, one of the players on the team was a POW in
Vietnam. So I went into that as much as I could. Are you talking about
the Rick Atkinson's book? This was a great book. That was a great book.
Yes?

Female Speaker:

Hi, Pat.

Pat Conroy:

Hello, Denise.

Female Speaker:

Fran.

Pat Conroy:

How are you doing?

Female Speaker:

I'm fine, Cassandra.

\[laughter\]

Female Speaker:

Are you and Cassandra still down there at Fripp Island? Or have you
moved?

Cassandra King:

Yes, we live on Fripp Island, S. C.

Female Speaker:

When I'm down there in a couple of weeks, I want to see you.

Cassandra King:

Okay.

\[laughter\]

Male Speaker:

Mr. Conroy, I wonder if you could share anything about how you're able
to tell stories by unraveling layer after layer after layer, all the
time keeping us so transfixed and not able to put the book down. What's
the secret?

Pat Conroy:

When I was a young kid, I fell in love with story. And we live in a time
where story is not supposed to be, you know, the thing anymore. And if
you want to be a literary writer in America, you're supposed to eschew
story, not love story. I can't do that. Stories, you know, are the
substance of my life. I love them above all things, and I'm passionate
about stories. And when I hear a good one ‑‑ I heard one today ‑‑

\[laughter\]

Sue Monk Kidd. "Secret Life of Bees." We were eating dinner with her.
And she said last night she was at a place, and Rumsfeld passed \--
passed by her table. And she was sitting with somebody that works with
"Rummy," ‑‑

\[laughter\]

‑‑ and she says Rummy looked over, saw the woman and went \[gunshot
sound\].

\[laughter\]

And I thought that was one of the oddest things I'd ever heard.

\[laughter\]

Male Speaker:

First off, I'd like to say I'm from Alabama, and I went to the school in
Birmingham for three years. And you're darn fortunate that they didn't
think you were affiliated with Burger King ‑‑

\[laughter\]

‑‑ instead of Stephen King. And I address this to both of you. And you
raised the valid point of both of you in your writings have done the
great acts in writing what you know and what you've lived. And my
question is two‑part. One, what would you have done if you'd been like
the great masses of us and lived a milk toast, boring life?

\[laughter\]

 And if you'd lived that boring life and chosen to be a writer, what
would have written about?

\[laughter\]

Cassandra King:

Interesting question.

\[laughter\]

Pat Conroy:

You know, I tell people I feel sad for them if they had functional
families ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ and want to be a writer. You know, I don't know where their material
will come from.

\[laughter\]

And when somebody tells me, "Boy, I had a happy childhood," I always
think, "You'll never be a writer."

\[laughter\]

And the only one I've seen different is Sandra's family. Sandra had
wonderful parents, had a wonderful childhood, but she had the worst
taste in men in the history of the earth ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ and so that's where ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ she got ‑‑ and I believe that, too, by the way. See?

Male Speaker:

Interesting \[unintelligible\] how I got healing from my own father was
to discover story and delving into the stories. I was interested as I
began to read your books, how did you begin to get yourself is into the
fact that this was a healing way to get out the story and begin to
change your life so that it helped you understand your whole ‑‑ how you
live and how you made decisions and why your dad was the way he was and
all of those? How did that process come to you?

Pat Conroy:

How about you?

Cassandra King:

No. You.

Pat Conroy:

What?

Cassandra King:

No. The process. How did the process of healing, you know, getting your
stories out and causing ‑‑

Pat Conroy:

It began very simply with me. I wrote "The Water Is Wide" because the
question was: why did I get fired for teaching? I wrote "The Great
Santini" because of: why do I hate my father? I wrote that book, and
when Dad read it, he was horrified. He disappeared for days at a time.
And I said, "Dad, get to the last line. That was my great surprise." And
the last line of "The Great Santini" reads something like this: "Ben
filled up on the road to Atlanta. Filled up as he'd never done before.
Filled up with the love of his father \-- the love of Santini." That's
why I wrote that book. And I broke apart when I came to that. "The Lords
of Discipline": what did I go through at the Citadel? What was that all
about? So usually all the books come from one question. And "The Prince
of Tides":  when my mother read "The Great Santini," she came to me and
she said, "That was a crummy book you wrote." And I said, "Thanks, Mom.
I hear it from critics all the time, but it's wonderful hearing it from
the person you love best in the world."

\[laughter\]

And she said, "No, you gave it to Santini. You say he was the power in
that house. He wasn't the power, I wrapped him around my finger. 

\[laughter\]

I ran that house. I was the power of that house. You just weren't good
enough to see it." I said, "Hey, Mom, I saw it. Give me a chance down
the road."

\[laughter\]

Say hello to "The Prince of Tides."

\[laughter\]

But it works like that.

Female Speaker:

Hi. Many years ago at a child abuse conference, you talked about your
situation with your stepchildren. And at the time I was a psychologist
dealing with a situation like that. I just wanted to thank you for what
you said back then.

Pat Conroy:

Okay. Thanks very much. It was agony all the way. I just want to tell
you that.

Female Speaker:

Pat, given your love of stories and that you seem to have so many yarns
to tell, how about a collection of short stories?

Pat Conroy:

Conroy don't do nothing short.

\[applause and laughter\]

Cassandra King:

Long short stories.

Female Speaker:

I have loved every book you've wrote, and I read every one of them.
Wanted to see if while in town you're going to go back to Gonzaga and
try to avenge ‑‑ maybe throw some basketballs in the hoop there and see
what you can do now. I was a Gonzaga man for one fourth of my high
school career. I'm one quarter Gonzaga man.

\[laughter\]

And I was humiliated when I went back to talk to the Gonzaga boys. The
headmaster whose name I will never repeat said he thought it would be
interesting for the Gonzaga boys to see what my grades were when I was
at Gonzaga.

\[laughter\]

And he got the grades out. I just simply blushed and put my head into my
hands. He read them all. And he said, "We have," ‑‑ 69 was failing ‑‑
and so he said, "Religion, 70. History, 71. Algebra, 70. Biology, 70."
By this time, these boys, horrible Gonzaga boys, are roaring with
laughter. And he finally got to English, and he said, "Gonzaga was not
all bad for Mr. Conroy." And he said, "In English had got a 99. The
highest of any Gonzaga boy of that year." So Gonzaga recognized
something. But because of him humiliating me, I will never go back to
that school.

\[laughter\]

Female Speaker:

This is for both of you, please. Could you please talk about your
writing routines? Do you each have your own writing space? Do you talk
about your works in progress?

Cassandra King:

We do. We each have a room, you know, our writing room. And I get an
early start in morning, and several hours later Pat appears and starts
writing. We do. We talk some about our works in progress. We don't
really, you know ‑‑ it's not the kind of thing where I'd say, "Read
this, and tell me what you think," or something like that, because that
doesn't work for me. In the first place, if he were to say, "I think
it's terrible. You need to start over," something like that, you know, I
may not could do that. So I like to wait until totally have a draft all
the way through.

I use a computer. Pat still writes by longhand, and that's one of the
reasons that it takes, you know, 10 years between books for him ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ and I'm trying to get him to use a computer so we can get more Pat
Conroy novels out there, you know.

Female Speaker:

Hello, this is for Pat. I was wondering. In "The Prince of Tides" the
imagery for the schizophrenic sister, how did you get into that person's
head? What is your experience with that?

Cassandra King:

Oh.

Pat Conroy:

Ooh, whew.

Pat Conroy:

Intimate experience. You know, I have a sister who's a poet in New York.
And she's suffered from mental illness since she was a little girl. And
one of the things about "The Prince of Tides" is: why is my sister
crazy? And it started out when my mother called me up on the telephone.
I was living in Atlanta at the time. And she said, "Your sister tried to
kill herself again." And then my mother said, "Try not to blame
yourself."

\[laughter\]

And I said, "I will find that very easy. I have not seen my sister in
three years." And I said, "When are you going up, Mom?" And she said, "I
can't possibly go up. It came at a bad time. We're having a party this
weekend." And "The Prince of Tides" so that's when I went up to the
mental hospital, and that was the beginning of.

Cassandra King:

He doesn't write fiction. I tell you.

Male Speaker:

Hi, Mr. Conroy. Why have you written most of your books as novels rather
than nonfiction? And, related question, Mrs. King, why do you prefer
fiction to nonfiction?

Cassandra King:

I'm not sure that I do prefer fiction to nonfiction. I like to write
nonfiction because you don't ‑‑ you know, it's there. It's justall out
there for you, and you don't have to do a lot of thinking. You're just
relating these events, I guess. But I love, enjoy -- I love reading
fiction so much that I'm naturally attracted to it. I'm not sure, since
Pat doesn't write fiction, I'm not sure he can answer that but  ‑‑

\[laughter\]

 ‑‑ give it a go.

Pat Conroy:

I have far more courage writing about my family than my wife does. And
if she wrote about just her sons, I promise you her book would sell
forever and ever and ever and be taught in lit‑ ‑‑ but she can't quite
do it. My children \-- I tell my children it's very rare for a writer to
write about his or her children. But I want to give it a shot before
it's out.

\[laughter\]

I just want to give it a shot. And here's why. I was signing books in
Los Angeles when this young kid, handsome young kid ‑‑ they're all
handsome young kids now, they're smiling, \[unintelligible\] books ‑‑
and I asked where he's from. He's from Boulder, Colorado. So I said,
"Oh, my daughter went to Boulder, Colorado. To the University of
Colorado. She graduated. He goes, "What year? What was her name?

And I said, "Her name is Megan Conroy." And this kid, I swear, went
\[gasps\] ‑‑

\[laughter\]

And I said, "Kid, why did you go \[gasps\] when Megan's name was
mentioned?"

He looks at me and says, "Mr. Conroy, I want to congratulate you. Megan
Conroy was the biggest party animal in the history of the University of
Colorado."

\[laughter\]

And I said, "Thanks, kid, I think." I said, "Weren't they voted party ‑‑
college party school of the year by "Playboy" magazine?" And he says,
"Four years in a row, Sir. The same four years that Megan was there."

\[laughter\]

I called Megan. I repeat this story. I said, "What does this story mean,
Megan?" She thought about it. She said, "Here's what it means, Dad. I
love having a good time. Just like my old man."

\[laughter\]

Male Speaker:

We have time for one for question. One more?

Female Speaker:

What is your upcoming book about, and when will it be published?

Cassandra King:

My next book, the name of it is "The Same Sweet Girls." It should be
published this time next year, hopefully. Editing goes okay. And it is
about a group of women that I actually belong to, a group called The
Same Sweet Girls, and we get together. We went to school together, and
we get together every year. So that's my next one.

Pat Conroy:

Thank y'all very much.

\[applause\]

See you down there. See you.

\[applause\]

\[end of transcript\]