December 12, 2008
Washington, DC

Marshall Public Library (Pocatello, Idaho) kicked off its Big Read of Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping on October 14 with a reading by the author at Idaho State University. Photo by Jim Tehila.

In a recent interview with the NEA, Robinson described the writing practice that has beget her award-winning novels, including Housekeeping, Gilead, and most recently, Home:

"I write when I can. I write very much when I have the impulse to write. And so I can write five days a week, you know, continuously. And then, if I come to the end and I have to think about things for a while, I don?t write at all for a while. I?m not at all a work ethic sort of writer...[E]ither I have persuaded myself of the illusion, or I?m outside of the illusion and those are my two states, as far as writing is concerned."