Bob CollinsIt’s been awhile since anyone has waded into the “is Garrison Keillor going to retire?” discussion. Keillor invited it some years ago when he indicated he’d retire in 2013. Then a year ago he said “maybe not.”
Keillor was on PBS with Charlie Rose this week.
“I think retirement is a beautiful thing and I think about it a lot,” he told Rose. “But then I think how lucky I am to have this show and it’s two hours every Saturday. Nobody tells me what I have to do and I work with these wonderful people. and I have all of these listeners and when I walk down the street and people recognize me, they smile, and that’s really all you need in a world.”
Go on…
“In New York if a woman gets on a (subway) car with you and looks at you and smiles, they’re not supposed to do that… I sat on a subway once… I got on a Broadway express and I was sitttng across from a woman reading a book of mine… and she was African American and she sat and read this book and she never smiled, but she kept turning the page… and I rode with her … and it was too much tension. I got off.”
“Someone from the Midwest who is used to traveling in a steel box… and the art of standing away from three other people… without making eye contact… it gives you a different…”
Well… enough of that. And on they went talking about subways and grandmothers and family, and the lack of Republicans in Saint Paul.
And that’s how Garrison Keillor avoids answering the question.
He did say he might move to New York, which makes sense since his show often originates there these days.
Here’s the entire interview.
