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Photography courtesy of A Prairie Home Companion
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Photography courtesy of A Prairie Home Companion
After a few false-alarm threats of retirement, Garrison Keillor’s finally doing it. He will host A Prairie Home Companion live at the Fox Theatre on June 18, and then it won’t happen ever again. He’s become more of a curator than a creator, he says, and he wants to quit while he’s ahead. And then? Maybe he’ll eat lunch more often. But he’s not headed for a hammock—he wants to finish his memoir and try his hand as a playwright. (Keillor once said his true calling was as a bus driver.) He’s built his life around “steady, workmanlike work,” and he recommends it.
“We are one country, and that is the basis for everything,” you told the Guardian. What’s fracturing us, at the deepest level? It is so sad to see families get splintered by political differences. Fathers/daughters, brothers/sisters—it breaks your heart. I say, “Go believe any crazy thing you want to believe, but don’t beat up on your own flesh and blood. Have mercy.”
You’ve written about “tortured loners”—have you ever been one? No. I tried to be, thinking it necessary for a literary person, and then I met people who truly were tortured and I gave up the pretense.
What annoys you? Sloppy writing, especially my own.
In your memoir, what will surprise people most? How lucky I was. I hope they don’t resent me for it.
At your darkest, what themes or questions do you find compelling? At your lightest, what tickles you most about life or human nature? I used to think about death and what might follow it, but now I worry about my daughter and grandsons and what will become of them when I’m gone. I feel very light when I’m lost in a crowd of women having lunch with other women and talking about their families. They are such determined worriers. You get good material there. Women really open up over lunch. Men just chew.
If you could have the answer to just one question about life, what would it be? What is on God’s mind right now, and what does he expect me to do about it?
