July 7, 2011
Washington, DC
“Read” by flickr user markhillary
The 2011-2012 Big Read grantees were announced this morning, which means it’s time to start gearing up for our sixth season of the program. As always, we look forward to seeing how our 76 grant recipients will use creative new ways to engage their communities with their selected books.
In anticipation of September, when the next grant cycle begins, we thought we?d take a look at some of our most important Big Read participants: the authors themselves. Below are some of our favorite author quotes and stories, collected from podcasts and interviews conducted by the NEA.
Amy Tan, on writing:
?The great discovery is that if you write something from your heart, even though it’s fictional, it provides that meaning that we all want.
Ray Bradbury?s biographer, Sam Weller, on Bradbury?s cluttered study:
?I like to call it his laboratory of his imagination. I mean his basement office is just a wreck of ideas, toy rocket ships, rubber Godzillas, symbols that he would look at, metaphors he would tell you that ignite his imagination?he could look at them. Symbols from his past, nostalgic remnants. His father’s hat, his old Stetson hat, hangs above his desk. Masks he’d collected in Mexico while on a trip there in the 1940s, gifts he’d received from fans. Every letter he’s ever been sent from fans are kept down there and you can go through. And I found a letter I wrote to him as a child down there in a book.?
