Oprah Winfrey Robert Morgan, author Rory Kennedy, documentary film maker Terri Dollar Jason Appleman Isabel Legarda Twanda McAlister

Oprah
"...For me, I thought it made me think about my own life, my past life growing up, rural Mississippi, having to do everything,...make everything right there in that environment make me not only appreciate this life but also think about how could I have survived if that has continued? How could I — what kind of person would I have been?"

Did you get hungry while reading this very descriptive novel?

"I wanted some biscuits and jelly" —Oprah

"I made corn bread" —Isabel

"I got up and made corn bread" —Robert

How Stories Affect Us
"People come together and they start talking about stories. And they said, oh, you remember when we did that?"—Terri

"Yeah. When all the external power has been depleted, then it makes people go inside." —Oprah

"It's us at our most human when we're sharing stories." —Isabel

To Robert —"Well, I think that's what you did with Gap Creek. You kept the tradition going. I think that's why it resonated so with all of us because there was something in there that felt very real. That felt like our own memories. Regardless of whether we had actually lived it." —Oprah

On Life 100 Years Ago — and Today
" I think what's interesting is hearing you all talk about this world which was a hundred years ago. And what I found in going back there, you know, two years ago, is not that much has changed." —Rory

"[Women] hold it altogether.They're the glue. And they're the ones that do exactly what has to be done like Julie did in this novel." —Terri

"I can fully appreciate Hank because he couldn't provide. And because with that - with that weight inside of him I can appreciate all of it... I can understand his fears and his stupidity." —Jason

Robert Morgan on Writing Gap Creek
"One of the great surprises to me as a writer was to discover that I wanted to write about work so much. Because I had gone off to college. I'd left the farm hoping to escape all that hard work... but as I began to write more and more, I discovered that I'd sort of been given this subject somehow."

On writing the pregnancy scene — " I'm so glad I attended Lamaze classes with my wife and was present at the birth of my two daughters... because I have drawn on that a lot."

Being a writer is "..Paying attention to the details."

"There's an advantage in having a narrator who's a woman because women do notice the details, I think."

"I like something that Jason said very much like that about conflicting with the past through stories. So that we have a sense of community across time, you know, not just in the present."

Read the letters that gave these discussion group members the chance to participate in this discussion.

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