Ann Patchett reveals ‘only dream she ever had’ was to pay bills with writing

Ann Patchett has revealed the “only dream” she ever had was to be able to pay her bills with writing.

The 62-year-old American author has published 10 novels across her career – including the Pulitzer and Women’s Prize for Fiction nominated The Dutch House.

Speaking on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4, she told host Lauren Laverne about her lifelong goal to make a living as a writer.

She said: “My greatest dream in life was to be able to pay my bills with writing. That’s the only dream I ever had.

“I didn’t want to be rich or famous or wanted to buy a house. I just thought that one day I wanted to be able to have a tiny apartment that was mine and that I could pay for by writing.

“Mostly I made my living as a writer and that’s all I wanted and I never revised that, ever.”

However, Patchett added that she did not believe in the idea that every person had a book idea within them.

“Oh I don’t believe that, any more than I believe any more that I believe that everyone has one mathematical proof in them, or one perfectly prepared pot roast. I mean, if somebody said to you that everybody has one perfect symphony in them, you would say that is ridiculous,” she said.

“But there is something about the notion that because we can all write and tell stories, we all have a book in us. We all have something in us, but it’s not necessarily a book.”

The author also detailed spending seven months writing her debut novel The Patron Saint Of Liars, which was released in 1992.

“I had been thinking about the story for a long time – about a year – and I started writing and I was about three days in when I thought: ‘This is the worst idea for a novel and I need to come up with a completely different idea,’” she said.

Former president Joe Biden presented the 2021 National Humanities Medal to Ann Patchett in the White House (Alamy/PA)

However, after calling a friend and fellow writer, Patchett said she was encouraged to push through.

Her friend told her: “You are absolutely allowed to come up with a new idea when you are finished writing this novel.”

“Voice of God. That was the single best advice anyone has ever given me,” she said.

Patchett went on to call finishing the book the “proudest and most meaningful moment” of her life.

“It was the fulfilment of a contract I had made myself. I had always wanted to write a novel, and I had done it,” she added.

Patchett recalled how she got 30,000 dollars for her novel and wanted to fix the air conditioning on her car, which had been out for five years.

“I went to get it fixed, and it was out of coolant and cost 17 dollars. I cried. To think I’d spent five years in a boiling hot car with no air conditioning,” she said.

In the interview, Patchett also called being awarded the National Humanities Medal by then-US president Joe Biden the “dearest moment”.

Patchett won the Orange Prize for fiction in 2002 for Bel Canto (Alamy/PA)

“When I was there standing on the stage and he put a medal around my neck and was holding my hand and he said: ‘Good work kiddo’ and I thought I was going to burst into tears. It was the dearest moment of my life,” she said.

Patchett spent nearly a decade writing for Seventeen magazine, going on to have her work published in The New Yorker, Elle, GQ and Vogue.

Her debut novel The Patron Saint Of Liars was published in 1992 and was turned into a television movie of the same name six years later.

She has gone on to write a total of 10 novels, four works of nonfiction, and three children’s picture books.

Some of her best-known novels include Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Commonwealth, The Dutch House and Whistler – the latter of which was released this year.

She has won the Pen/Faulkner Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for The Dutch House.

Patchett won the Orange Prize for Fiction for Bel Canto in 2002.

Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Desert Island Discs can be heard on BBC Radio 4 and Sounds from 10am on Sunday.