Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Mixed Blessings

Aired September 05, 2003 - 09:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Anna Quindlen is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and also the best-selling author of fiction, nonfiction children's book. And if that is not enough, her words of wisdom appear biweekly in "Newsweek." Her latest novel, "Blessings," is now out in paperback, and she joins us now to talk a little bit about that and much, much more.
You have said "Blessings" is your best novel, and yet Pulitzer Prize winner, and you have numerous best-seller. So what makes this one the best?

ANNA QUINDLEN, AUTHOR, "BLESSINGS": You couldn't keep doing this if you didn't feel you were getting better, but it's the least dependent on my own personal experience. It's the most I've ever explored characters, quite different than I am. One of the protagonists is a young blue collar man. The other is an 82-year-old woman, and I think it goes deeper into sort of the terrain of the heart than I've ever managed to do before.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about issues, because, of course, issues is what you write about in "Newsweek" and for everyone who loves your columns. I want to ask you first about Iraq. Back in June, you wrote about the costs, how generations of young people will be basically reaping the -- paying off the cost of the war, you wrote. Now that it looks like the president's going to go back and ask for many more billions of dollars, what's your take on that?

QUINDLEN: Well, first of all, I mean, I think the president with what has happened to the former surplus, which is now a record deficit, has really bankrupted future generations of kids in this country. But especially in Iraq, the cost is not just in dollars anymore. I mean, I was talking last night to a woman whose daughter is there and has been told four different times she was going home, and hasn't, and it's also cost this country in terms of our internal credibility. All over this country, you meet people who say, gee, you know, what did the president mean by weapons of mass destruction? Where are they, and how come nobody can find them?

O'BRIEN: Talk to me about the California recall race. Have you been -- you haven't really written much about it? Do you find it -- is there something compelling about it that you -- I mean, outside of who was in it and things like that. Why not tackle it for your column?

QUINDLEN: Again, I feel that that's a matter of cost. I mean, with how tough things are in the states, but particularly in the state of California, to spend millions and millions of dollars on a recall election is a ridiculous waste of resources. I talked about it in general in terms of the fact that people have to be smarter about the affect of the federal budget and these alleged tax cuts we're supposed to be getting has on the state budgets, where the states have to be in balance, and therefore, have to raise fees, surcharges, taxes and, also, cut services, in part, because the feds have asked them to shoulder so many burdens of mandated programs, like homeland security, like health care for the elderly.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the blackout, the great blackout of 2003. You talk about hubris and how Americans are so accustomed to flipping a light switch and everything is well and good in life. Many people pointed out that during the blackout, New Yorkers got along famously, and people were happy and partying and sort of got through a bad time. Have you changed your mind at all?

QUINDLEN: I haven't really. And I do wonder sometimes whether the rest of the country is getting a little tired of hearing about how New Yorkers so good at pulling together. Since I assume that all over country people are good in times of difficulty of pulling together.

But I do think that there was a little bit of a sense of, oh, my God, my refrigerator isn't working for 24 hours. We have to have more of a sense of perspective, and I wish that somewhere along the lines, someone had mentioned the "c" word conservation. We use more power than any other peoples in any other developed nation.

Somebody at some point has to take a look at that and say, Americans have gotten a little spoiled.

O'BRIEN: I want to take one second to just ask you a little about the approaching 9/11 anniversary. You say the victims' families are now the leaders -- I guess the moral leaders in a lot of ways. What do you mean?

QUINDLEN: Well, I really felt last year when I watched those families that they had that kind of authority that people who have been tested have, and people who have really thought deeply about what really matters in the world and in this country. I hope we don't forget them this year. People talk about getting past it, a sense of closure. I think there are things that happen in a country and in our lives that one ought not to get past, that ought to be with you all the time. And, boy, I think if there is any event of my lifetime that should fall under that rubric, it's this one.

O'BRIEN: Anna Quindlen, I know you are always busy and you don't come out and chat much. So when we get you, we like to talk to you about everything. Nice to see you.

QUINDLEN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 5, 2003 - 09:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Anna Quindlen is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and also the best-selling author of fiction, nonfiction children's book. And if that is not enough, her words of wisdom appear biweekly in "Newsweek." Her latest novel, "Blessings," is now out in paperback, and she joins us now to talk a little bit about that and much, much more.
You have said "Blessings" is your best novel, and yet Pulitzer Prize winner, and you have numerous best-seller. So what makes this one the best?

ANNA QUINDLEN, AUTHOR, "BLESSINGS": You couldn't keep doing this if you didn't feel you were getting better, but it's the least dependent on my own personal experience. It's the most I've ever explored characters, quite different than I am. One of the protagonists is a young blue collar man. The other is an 82-year-old woman, and I think it goes deeper into sort of the terrain of the heart than I've ever managed to do before.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about issues, because, of course, issues is what you write about in "Newsweek" and for everyone who loves your columns. I want to ask you first about Iraq. Back in June, you wrote about the costs, how generations of young people will be basically reaping the -- paying off the cost of the war, you wrote. Now that it looks like the president's going to go back and ask for many more billions of dollars, what's your take on that?

QUINDLEN: Well, first of all, I mean, I think the president with what has happened to the former surplus, which is now a record deficit, has really bankrupted future generations of kids in this country. But especially in Iraq, the cost is not just in dollars anymore. I mean, I was talking last night to a woman whose daughter is there and has been told four different times she was going home, and hasn't, and it's also cost this country in terms of our internal credibility. All over this country, you meet people who say, gee, you know, what did the president mean by weapons of mass destruction? Where are they, and how come nobody can find them?

O'BRIEN: Talk to me about the California recall race. Have you been -- you haven't really written much about it? Do you find it -- is there something compelling about it that you -- I mean, outside of who was in it and things like that. Why not tackle it for your column?

QUINDLEN: Again, I feel that that's a matter of cost. I mean, with how tough things are in the states, but particularly in the state of California, to spend millions and millions of dollars on a recall election is a ridiculous waste of resources. I talked about it in general in terms of the fact that people have to be smarter about the affect of the federal budget and these alleged tax cuts we're supposed to be getting has on the state budgets, where the states have to be in balance, and therefore, have to raise fees, surcharges, taxes and, also, cut services, in part, because the feds have asked them to shoulder so many burdens of mandated programs, like homeland security, like health care for the elderly.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the blackout, the great blackout of 2003. You talk about hubris and how Americans are so accustomed to flipping a light switch and everything is well and good in life. Many people pointed out that during the blackout, New Yorkers got along famously, and people were happy and partying and sort of got through a bad time. Have you changed your mind at all?

QUINDLEN: I haven't really. And I do wonder sometimes whether the rest of the country is getting a little tired of hearing about how New Yorkers so good at pulling together. Since I assume that all over country people are good in times of difficulty of pulling together.

But I do think that there was a little bit of a sense of, oh, my God, my refrigerator isn't working for 24 hours. We have to have more of a sense of perspective, and I wish that somewhere along the lines, someone had mentioned the "c" word conservation. We use more power than any other peoples in any other developed nation.

Somebody at some point has to take a look at that and say, Americans have gotten a little spoiled.

O'BRIEN: I want to take one second to just ask you a little about the approaching 9/11 anniversary. You say the victims' families are now the leaders -- I guess the moral leaders in a lot of ways. What do you mean?

QUINDLEN: Well, I really felt last year when I watched those families that they had that kind of authority that people who have been tested have, and people who have really thought deeply about what really matters in the world and in this country. I hope we don't forget them this year. People talk about getting past it, a sense of closure. I think there are things that happen in a country and in our lives that one ought not to get past, that ought to be with you all the time. And, boy, I think if there is any event of my lifetime that should fall under that rubric, it's this one.

O'BRIEN: Anna Quindlen, I know you are always busy and you don't come out and chat much. So when we get you, we like to talk to you about everything. Nice to see you.

QUINDLEN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com