E.L. Doctorow Tells A Story About Writing A Note To His Daughter's Teacher, And Everyone Breathes A Little Easier
E.L. Doctorow is onstage at the 2014 World Science Festival, with a panel of other astonishing writers moderated by NPR's John Hockenberry, telling a story rooted in a E.L. Doctorow by Jude Treder-Wolff, LCSW, RMT, CGP quote he attributes to Thomas Mann: "A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." Doctorow's daughter has been home from school with a cold for a few days and needs a note from a parent to give to the teacher upon her return. Its a few minutes before the bus arrives, no worries, and he begins the note "Please excuse my daughter..." then stops. "I don't need to make an excuse for my daughter, she did nothing wrong," he tells himself and begins with a new piece of paper. "My daughter caught a virus" then stops. "Wait a minute, my daughter didn't 'catch' a virus, if anything a virus 'caught' my daughter." He begins again with a