Isabel Allende

“Write because you love the process. And I think that’s essential—love the process. And then plunge into it as we plunge into life or into falling in love. You don’t plan it. You don’t have an outline. You don’t have a manual, you don’t have anything. And in the process of writing, things happen and and you start getting all the juices and the universe conspires to help you. You can always correct a bad page. You cannot correct a blank page.”

-Isabel Allende, episode 469 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Isabel Allende (The House of the Spirits, Paula) is one of the most widely-read authors in the world, alternating gracefully between the political and personal on the page for over forty years. 

We sat with Allende in Los Angeles for a special evening presented by How To Academy, beginning with her upbringing in Chile (4:45), the roots of her feminism (8:45), and her early pieces as a journalist at Paula magazine (13:15). Then, Allende recalls the 1973 military coup that eventually forced her into exile in Venezuela (17:00), the making of her debut novel (20:00), and nearly losing the manuscript in the process (27:30).

On the back-half, Allende reflects on the thousands of letters she exchanged with her late mother (34:42), the loss of her daughter Paula and the book born from that grief (38:56), and the rituals that continue to shape her writing (47:00). We also talk about therapy and divorce (51:55), the questions that inspire each new book (1:05:15), finding love again at 74 (1:07:05), and the daily gratitude practice that keeps her returning to the page (1:10:30).