"You have to let the characters be themselves and dictate the terms of their own story, and so my job is to not have any kind of smart, clever ideas that I then force on the narrative... force into the character's life. When I do that, it's a disaster." - Ruth Ozeki, speaking in #Pittsburgh last night Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Carnegie Music Hall and online for yesterday's Ten Evenings lecture with ozekiland! And many thanks to Hunter Associates and publicsource for supporting this event! Next: three-term US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo takes the stage on Monday, March 27 to discuss "Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years." #RuthOzeki #TheBookOfFormAndEmptiness #WomenWriters #WrittenByWomen #Bookish #BookLove #Bookstagram #TBR #TBRlist #CurrentlyReading #ReadersOfInstagram #AuthorsOfInstagram #ThingsToDoInPittsburgh #WhatToDo412 #PittsburghLife