One note before we start this episode.
The conversation includes a discussion of suicide.
If you're thinking about suicide, or if you know someone who is,
or if you need someone to talk to right now,
you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.
Or you can text HOME to 741741, which is the crisis text line.
If you're outside the U.S., check out the list of international hotlines at suicide.org.
Okay, here's the show.
You're listening to Book Exploder,
where authors break down a passage from their work to show us how they write.
I'm Rishi K. Shirwe.
And I'm Susan Orlean.
For this episode, Susan spoke to author Michael Cunningham.
He breaks down how he wrote a passage in his book The Hours from 1998.
And Susan, you and Michael are actually friends, right?
Is that fair to say?
Yeah, well, I'm...
Proud to say that we're friends because I think he is really extraordinary.
And The Hours is probably in my top ten favorite books.
I feel like it was one of those books that I read almost in one sitting.