{"id":84432,"date":"2015-04-07T11:49:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T15:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=84432"},"modified":"2015-04-08T14:44:50","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T18:44:50","slug":"you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou Learn to Trust It\u201d: An Interview with Horton Foote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZdFOfKQlGkg?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/92yondemand.org\/Topic\/poetry-center-online\/\">92Y\u2019s Unterberg Poetry Center<\/a>, <em>The Paris Review<\/em> has copresented an occasional series of live conversations with writers\u2014many of which have formed the foundations of interviews in the quarterly. Recently, 92Y and <em>The Paris Review<\/em> have made recordings of these interviews available at <a href=\"http:\/\/92yondemand.org\/Topic\/paris-review-series\/\">92Y\u2019s Poetry Center Online<\/a> and here at\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/92y\">The Paris Review<\/a><\/em>. Consider them deleted scenes from our Writers at Work interviews, or directors\u2019 cuts, or surprisingly lifelike radio adaptations.<\/p>\n<p>This week we\u2019re rolling out the four latest editions to the collection: <strong>Horton Foote<\/strong>, <strong>Gail Godwin<\/strong>, <strong>Reynolds<\/strong> <strong>Price<\/strong>, and <strong>Tony Kushner<\/strong>. All are Southerners, and as coincidence would have it, we\u2019re just in time for the 150th anniversary of Lee\u2019s surrender at Appomattox Court House and the end of the Civil War, on April 9. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>First up, the dramatist <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/audio\/6026\/92y-emthe-paris-review-em-interview-series-horton-foote-horton-foote\">Horton Foote<\/a><\/strong>, whom <strong>Frank Rich <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/audio\/6026\/92y-emthe-paris-review-em-interview-series-horton-foote-horton-foote\">interviewed on March 28, 1996<\/a>. Interestingly, <em>The Paris Review<\/em> never ran a print version of this conversation, so the contents of this recording are entirely new to most of us. Foote\u2014who died in 2009, at the age of ninety-two\u2014is known for his screenplays for <em>To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em> and <em>Tender Mercies<\/em>. \u201cI come out of a strong oral tradition in the South,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Plays, at least for me, they grow out of a lot of meditation. You do a lot of thinking, and then, finally, you think you have the thing that\u2019s going to take you all the way to the end. Sometimes you\u2019re wrong. I make sketches, I write notes to myself, and then, finally, I think I\u2019m ready to go. I write as fully fast as I can, and I\u2019m often surprised at where it takes me &#8230; Endings are inevitably a surprise &#8230; you learn to trust it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Tomorrow, we\u2019ll feature <strong>Tony Kushner<\/strong>\u2019s interview from 2003. In the meantime, you can check out some previous installments of the 92Y series: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/20\/the-poets-speak\/\">the poets<\/a> (<strong>Maya Angelou<\/strong>, <strong>Denise Levertov<\/strong>, and <strong>Gary Snyder<\/strong>) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/24\/take-a-mental-vacation-listen-to-travel-writers\/\">the travel writers<\/a> (<strong>Paul Theroux<\/strong>, <strong>Jan Morris<\/strong>, and <strong>Peter Matthiessen<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p>We are able to share these recordings thanks to a generous gift in memory of Christopher Lightfoot Walker, longtime friend of the Poetry Center and <i>The Paris Review<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dan Piepenbring is the web editor of <\/em>The Paris Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At 92Y\u2019s Unterberg Poetry Center, The Paris Review has copresented an occasional series of live conversations with writers\u2014many of which have formed the foundations of interviews in the quarterly. Recently, 92Y and The Paris Review have made recordings of these interviews available at 92Y\u2019s Poetry Center Online and here at\u00a0The Paris Review. Consider them deleted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7646],"tags":[11557,16112,17697,5227,17698,12365,1132,7221,165,14627,16536,17696,10113],"class_list":["post-84432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look-2","tag-92y","tag-92y-ungerberg-poetry-center","tag-appomattox","tag-audio","tag-horton-foote","tag-interview-series","tag-interviews","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-recordings","tag-southern-writers","tag-southerners","tag-writers-at-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Listen: An Archival Interview with Horton Foote<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From our collaboration with 92Y: the playwright, who died in 2009, discusses his craft with Frank Rich in 1996.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cYou Learn to Trust It\u201d: An Interview with Horton Foote by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 7, 2015 \u2013 At 92Y\u2019s Unterberg Poetry Center, The Paris Review has copresented an occasional series of live conversations with writers\u2014many of which have formed the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-07T15:49:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-08T18:44:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cYou Learn to Trust It\u201d: An Interview with Horton Foote\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-07T15:49:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-08T18:44:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/\"},\"wordCount\":384,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"92Y\",\"92y Ungerberg Poetry Center\",\"Appomattox\",\"audio\",\"Horton Foote\",\"Interview Series\",\"interviews\",\"poems\",\"poetry\",\"recordings\",\"Southern writers\",\"southerners\",\"writers at work\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Listen\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/\",\"name\":\"Listen: An Archival Interview with Horton Foote\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-07T15:49:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-08T18:44:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"From our collaboration with 92Y: the playwright, who died in 2009, discusses his craft with Frank Rich in 1996.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u201cYou Learn to Trust It\u201d: An Interview with Horton Foote\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\",\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Piepenbring\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dpiepenbring\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Listen: An Archival Interview with Horton Foote","description":"From our collaboration with 92Y: the playwright, who died in 2009, discusses his craft with Frank Rich in 1996.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cYou Learn to Trust It\u201d: An Interview with Horton Foote by Dan Piepenbring","og_description":"April 7, 2015 \u2013 At 92Y\u2019s Unterberg Poetry Center, The Paris Review has copresented an occasional series of live conversations with writers\u2014many of which have formed the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-04-07T15:49:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-04-08T18:44:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Dan Piepenbring","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Piepenbring","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/"},"author":{"name":"Dan Piepenbring","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8"},"headline":"\u201cYou Learn to Trust It\u201d: An Interview with Horton Foote","datePublished":"2015-04-07T15:49:53+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-08T18:44:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/"},"wordCount":384,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["92Y","92y Ungerberg Poetry Center","Appomattox","audio","Horton Foote","Interview Series","interviews","poems","poetry","recordings","Southern writers","southerners","writers at work"],"articleSection":["Listen"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/","name":"Listen: An Archival Interview with Horton Foote","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-07T15:49:53+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-08T18:44:50+00:00","description":"From our collaboration with 92Y: the playwright, who died in 2009, discusses his craft with Frank Rich in 1996.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/07\/you-learn-to-trust-it-an-interview-with-horton-foote\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u201cYou Learn to Trust It\u201d: An Interview with Horton Foote"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8","name":"Dan Piepenbring","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Piepenbring"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dpiepenbring\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84432"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84519,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84432\/revisions\/84519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}