Two of your characters, Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge, have clearly got a huge grip on your imagination and on your readers’ hearts. Why do you think that is?
I think Lucy and Olive reach people in different ways. But they are both so clear in my mind that I think that clarity transfers to the reader. They couldn’t be more different from each other, except I do think they both — in their different ways — have big hearts.
Anyone who has spent a lot of time in hospital, as a patient or visitor, will relate profoundly to your description of the setting in My Name Is Lucy Barton. Are there books that particularly stand out for the way they capture a locale or situation?
Mrs Dalloway seems to me to capture a particular place; London as Mrs Dalloway goes to get her flowers for the party, the street, the businesses, the homes, and the park where poor Septimus Smith is sitting with his wife.
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Your latest book is a lockdown novel, among other things. Did you hesitate to explore this territory at all, or was it simply normal for a novelist to write about ‘the new normal’?
I wrote about the pandemic — as a backdrop to the book — because it was happening, it was real, it was historic and I thought: I must get this down. And because William and Lucy were still so vibrantly in my head from Oh William! I thought, let’s get them together in a lockdown situation and sees what happens.
Could you share your thoughts on the rich terrain of the borderland where the novel and the interconnected short story collection meet?
I wrote a number of books in stories and yet I think of them as novels. What interested me in doing this was to get as many different points of view as possible. For Olive books, I wanted people to see her from many different angles. And in Anything is Possible I wanted to show the people of Lucy’s hometown, so each one got their own story. But they are all of one piece to me, so I see them as novels, though others might see them as stories. But it makes no difference to me, I mean, novel or stories — call it what you want!
Have you ever gone on a literary pilgrimage?
Years ago when I was young I went to Dorset to find Thomas Hardy’s house. When I finally got there some woman came out of the house and really screamed at me to go away, so I did.
What is the best writing advice you have heard? Or: what advice would you give to your younger writing self?
The best writing advice I ever heard I gave to myself years ago: Do not stop. You will continue to get better if you keep writing. And that’s what I did. When I look back at my younger years of writing now, I would say to that person: Stop trying to write like a writer and just say what you want on the page.
Which of your books are you proudest of, and why?
I do not have a favourite book of mine.
Who do you admire the most?
I admire my daughter and her husband the most of all people. I think they have wonderful values and they live their life in a way that I admire.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
If I were supreme ruler for a day I would insist that every person on this Earth have a room to live in, regardless of their race or gender; that they never sleep outside again.
Which public event affected you most?
The storming of the Capitol affected me a great deal. I saw the deep divide in my country.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
The most remarkable place I visited was Hawaii, years ago. The terrain was beautiful, unlike anything I had ever seen.
Your most treasured possession?
In truth, I do not have a favourite possession.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
The most beautiful book I own is a leather-bound copy of the practices of 16th Century surgery. The cover is beautiful and the print is lovely, the kind where they stuck the letters right into the page.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
I would be too intimidated to invite the writers I admire to any dinner party, sorry! Even the dead ones.
The best and worst things about where you live?
The best thing about where I live in Maine is that it is very beautiful. The worst thing about it is that there are not that many people, and I like to see lots of people out and about during the day.
What is your favourite quotation?
My favourite quote is: “We give a great deal of weight to many things — people and places — but in the end we are all weightless.”
Who is your favourite fictional character?
My favourite fictional characters: the sisters in Richard Yates’s Easter Parade. They are products of their time and place in history and are incurable alcoholics. They make me weep with pity for them, they seem very guileless to me.
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout is published by Viking
