Blood. Well, good evening, everyone. Welcome. [cheers and applause] on behalf of all of us with the Miami Book Fair we want to welcome you to the 29th book fair, believe it or not. [cheers and applause] remarkable undertaking and takes the work of literally hundreds and hundreds of volunteers. We have a remarkable board of directors who work extremely hard at doing this year round, none of this at all could happen without the good, good support of everyone here at Miamidade College and lets give them a huge round of applause. [applause] and we are particularly appreciative of the sponsors. Without the sponsors and the funding from foundations and governmental agencies, we would not be able to bring you all of this wonderful literary extravaganza. I would also like to tell you to pick up a guide on the way out. We have a remarkable program. We start at 4 00, for all who have kids, he is coming with his new series and will be there at 4 00 along with manuel diaz, wonderful writer. And chris hayes who you might know from msnbc. He will be there ending the program that night. We have incredible programming in the spanish and other languages as well. We have 170 writers from Different Countries, from latin america and spain that will be with us as well is a featured country and we invite you to the opening of the pavilion next thursday and we have the first lady of the country doing the honor of opening so please come by and learn about their culture, traditions and literature throughout the weekend. On a personal note i have been working with alina inrerian, executive director of the center for the college. Before that was executive director of the Miami Book Fair. I cant tell you how many years. It was a lot of years. It was Just Announced that alina inrerian is executive director of Cultural Affairs for the entire Miamidade College. We want to congratulate her. Looking forward to that. And celebrating 30 years in march. Mark your calendars for that as well. My secret hope is you will cla with books in them and opera with books in them. Can i take two more minutes of your time . See if you can join me in recognizing 30 years of books and books for his leadership. [applause] alina inrerian said we couldnt do without our sponsors. We are very fortunate. Worldwide, his name is michael peach, publisher of little brown who is tom wolfes publisher. I would hope you could be recognized. Michael, there he is. Thank you. [applause] our sponsor the we had for many years, they have been really huge, channel to, to get off the ground, the executive Vice President and chief operating officer, please welcome dolores, delores sukhdeo. Have a good evening. [applause] thank you and welcome. My name is delores sukhdeo, with your Public Television station. [applause] what i love about the Miami Book Fair is it represents how we should be known here in miami. Sure we have beautiful beaches, interesting politics, increasingly known for our wacky characters but if you look to the person to your right and speak to the person to your left, we will find engaged, informed, cultured citizens and growing numbers. We are a smarter city than we give ourselves credit for as we need to get comfortable with that idea. I hope it is because you are watching more Public Television but i am sure there is no better way to look to the next level and to hear from a literary icon. Tom wolfe was born and raised in richmond, virginia, educated at Washington University and later earned a phd from yale. He spent his first ten years at the newspaper doing general assignment reporting and i but if i called on many of you, you could easily name his novel the right stuff, in our time, the bonfire of the vanities, a man in fool and many more. Now back to blood which reflects miami back to all of us. How are we going to react to that . He is credited with the birth of new journalism and the death of the american novel by some. He is the mark twain of our time. How lucky are we to have a moment in time with him and what better way to start this conversation and with a published author in his own right and a man whose name is synonymous with leadership, our own former mayor, manuel diaz. Let me turn it to you. Hopefully get him up here and tom wolfe. [applause] good evening, lets get you started. In the bonfire of the vanities you showed wall street and the upper east side, then you wrote about College Sports in a fictional college, your daughter intended to graduate, the question all of us want to know is how did you come to choose miami as the backdrop and what is the price . My first purpose is to write people would say what are you going to work on next . Something on immigration, always the same response. They go to sleep standing up like a horse but i thought it was a subject when people get in but they do. My first choice was the vietnamese in california, there in huge numbers migrating from los angeles to San Francisco just like miami in a way, now the vietnamese and couldnt read the paper either. I heard about the following facts, miami is the only city in the world which people from another country, took over at the voting machine, from one generation, with the cubans to the right. I just got to go, i thought the great industry, then i found out some time has been shipping that made the Miami Federal Reserve Bank have more cash than all the rest of the Federal Reserve system is put together but now it seems and shipping the other night. Miami, choice number 2, they have street names, once i was here i knew so little but have a lot of time including mayor. Chief of police john tim andy is not a bad place to start. You were down here, the mayor and chief of police immigrated to the United States and the notion of that the same here. That was john was born in dublin. Dont know how many of you remember john. He is the ultra irishman and when you look at him you know you are talking to a tough irishman and one of those colleagues had to draw his pistol twice for shootouts. The rest just looked at him. But anyway that is how i got started. John put me on a safe boat that i never heard of before. Like a phony pancake 25 feet long, it is fast actually. Unless you shoot holes through it nobody can hand them over, but anyway couldnt have helped it. The big hall of Freedom Tower is the way to meet people. Let me ask you, racial and ethnic strife, not to mention class antagonism permeate your novels. You purposely look for this and then choose the location or does the location lead to the strife . Maybe i am bragging but so few writers dont touch because of race, ethnicity and all those which makes people nervous as if they will be run out of town but that is america. That is what america is all about and i never knew. I was born and raised in britain and there were only two types of people, black and white. Most of the whites were white anglosaxon protestants so my 1 newspaper drive in massachusetts people were saying what are you . I dont know what they are talking about. Springfield was a city where people who couldnt get a job in boston couldnt get a job in new york going to springfield, a city with 170,000 and everybody was irish, italian, frenchcanadian and it was important to know where you came from. I came from shenandoah valley. What . I was in education. This country is the great Meeting Place for people from all over the world. A fantastic accomplishment. There are some, probably dont know what you are talking about, some who criticize some of your books, some of the characters are 1dimensional or simplistic or play stereotype. So is dickens. Tried to find some complicated side of the lawyer in great house, the name will come to me. What about the main character. Admits he was real. What your characters may, Charlotte Simmons, the man in fool, what did you feel they had in common, what his morality or choices have in common. What i mean about human voices, is a little bit backwards. Oke, i walk in and wait for the characters to arrive which they inevitably do because i got a great introduction to the police. One of the great figures in my humble opinion. They would steer me in this direction and it was always the right direction. In bahrain running it is heavy stuff. By the way let me just angel had the greatest voice and temperament ever seen. Angel talking hostages out of jumping off but some crisis came to miami put the chief on television, had the voice. They calm everybody down and it was undercover policeman. It was that voice, but never put on. Had great sharman but i was so shocked when angel died a couple of years anyway. Hialeah made you 0 in on where you have been, zoom in on the fact that it is an important aspect of the fatality. The race track, this and that, it was the greatest track, just look at it, flamingos on the infield and in a cage, they planted these shrubs, to keep their color. They feel terrible. It was a gorgeous place and when i got there after the core row corral, they were a little violent. It is not very little. 225,000 people, within the city within miami proper . I thought Little Havana was if you have a cup of coffee at the cafe, you play checkers across the street, you have been there. A lot of people do that. Speaking of ulster you have an incredible reputation for the amount of research when writing a book. How do you compare the research you do with the research you did in miami for blood . I dont think you have ever done this before. What was it like having a camera following you around during your research . When i was doing my research they followed me around. You see for yourself what happened to me. One thing i couldnt do with any camera man, bringing conversation to a halt, other than that, the question was not very good. That is the first thing i noticed. He did a brilliant job. Came back to miami at my invitation and the contribution to city life and the first part played an important part in the scene, especially in some rich guys apartment in manhattan and the backdrop. Take a minute to talk about what it means in america today. Used to be totally underestimated but now is a driving force, the best real estate developers. I see this in new york all the time. Theyve got to take our neighborhood, the worst part of brooklyn and the next thing you know the rich cant wait to pour in and by territory. Looking at the success, the artists develop and sometimes dont treat nicely. In providence, rhode island, you may than a you may know the name buddy chee on see, a multifaceted figure but he got the bright idea, talked to real estate people about it. A lot of Good Property warehouse, the artist used these lofts for that kind of thing. The smartest thing he did, suddenly found they moved in because they were all in this particular area. Civic improvements were happening, delivered, connecticut used to be covered in pavements for more parking spaces. He had all the parking taken away and each week had a boat come down in the river spraying incense and music playing on the boat and people would gather around the river. That is the power of art and it doesnt matter what the artists are like just as long as they are artists. On the spiritual side, i dont really know. Every welltodo art collector has an art assistant who chooses for him or her what he or she likes. I didnt know i liked that but it just works. It is a form of religion. I really believe that. You dont have a morality but just a place to go to warship. I will ask one more question and then open it up to all of you who have lots of questions for tom. In the bonfire of the vanities you got in a few tiffs with other authors about what real writing is. Norman mailer, updike and irving are referring to them as the 3 stooges. Were you just trying to start a fight just to be provocative . You seem to be many along the 30 third street corridor door, often seen with mailer and company. You think this has had a negative impact . Do you think each new book has a chance to get even . In a word, yes but i couldnt resist. Shows you have been hurt. Three of them were all over them. Old men who are successful, writing reviews. John updike was sold, complaining with bladder problems. Norman mailer who had two rested out hips running around on crutches and john, i make fun of john irving three of them. I had the perfect title, my three stooges. A student on stage is someone who sets up the lines for the committee and this is all they have done, set up lines for the committee. A lot of people never forget that, they have to think, brilliantly funny and a terrible gaffe by saying what i really meant, the politicians says what he really means. He should have known better than that. The reason i have a Long Distance there was a big outbreak of some disease in mexico, very contagious and he was asked by a reporter, would you advise your daughter to go to mexico tomorrow . Hell no. The denunciation to tell these Simple Truths were unbelievable. You have to honor the politicians who have a lot of gaffes. By the way officially it is back to blood that has to do with manuel diaz. On friday the publication will launch, miami transformed. You are absolutely in it. Why didnt you send me an advance copy . Chief himony and tom, what really transformed cities, talking about art and achievements, all about security. You know john better than i do but you are going to help me out with the question. Thank you for holding back. You have time for some questions. Questions would be unique for the Miami Book Fair but we would love them to be questioned. If you can line up behind this gentleman we will get through his many as we can. A book or two ago you wrote a description of hiphop music that was so on the money that i thought to myself tom wolf really gets hiphop music and really likes hiphop music, two questions. Do you like hiphop music and second, as a writer do you do anything special to get inside the brain of something that is so foreign to you or have you been doing it for so long it is Second Nature . To answer your first question, no, i dont like hiphop. But i do like country and western. One of my favorite titles is paint my truck in her driveway. That says so much about the character. It is not going to be a lexus or a toyota in that girls driveway, isnt that just great, paint my truck in her driveway. That is why i like that. And the music, all the Railroad Songs are good. Never had a chance to say this before. s. You find a guy that falls down in strip club and you go on from there. Its absolutely hes absolutely brilliant. I wouldnt even think of i dont read, many people who have done miami justice because they dont they dont really look around. They want to write about south beach and there are certainly things to be written about south beach but there are other parts of miami and they tend not to write about it. But ive read everything. Maybe they have, but i havent seen it. Yes, the next one. Hi, mr. Wolfe sex plays a big part, you said sex is gods little joke. What did you mean by that . Say that again . You were reading and also latin jazz near nyu and near the end you looked at the audience you said sex is gods little jokes i still believe that. [laughter] just read the papers today and yesterday. [laughter] and youll understand. I mean, you know, you can you have all of the ambitions. Particularly it was true you can have, all these ambitions, but you cant get rid of that urge. [laughter] and its going its going to torment you. Its gods little joke because god says you can do whatever you want but youre going to procreate and we are going to have more of your kind whether you want it or not. Thats why im very curious about whats going to happen with a country so full of unwed mothers. Its a tough thing to pull off, and its hard to be ceo of a bank as a and also be a mother, a good mother. Thank you. Thank you. So its gods little joke. [laughter] hi, good to be here and im an immigrant from the bronx, new york and i was just wondering were you able to get by with or without spanish . As an emigrei find it very difficult no to get along without spanish and also how is your salsa dancing . How is your salsa dancing . Im great at the tango. No, no, no, thats argentina. But the spanish, im interested in how you got along with or without the spanish or are you fluent, did you get fluent, did you have an interpreter with you, what did you how did you amass your ability to transform this town into english that is primarily a spanish well, i learned only about 45 minutes ago that i made a mistake, a glaring mistake. I was pointing out that because the miami herald years ago when massive immigration was coming in of cuban and Latin Americans generally, the herald was broadly speaking against it and there were a lot of latins who resented the stand that they were taking, so it came to be called, i thought its the yo no creo herald. It is. I was informed its not the correct spanish. No, yo creo ala herald. Which one would you use . You know i dont really know. [laughter] i think that by this town not becoming a bilingual town, it has children that are being caught in Public School but this is not a blanket statement that this is bilingual and children are not being brought up to speak both spanish and english and i just want to be a stand that thats what needs to happen here. [applause] thank you. Yeah. Hello. Im referring to please into the mic, you can pull it down. Speak into the mic. I will, how is that . Great. Im referring to Charlotte Simmons and im wondering after you transgendered into Charlotte Simmons, if you think theres any hope for Young College women, im a College Teacher and im wonder if you think theres any hope for the College Women these days . In general terms of when i wrote the i am Charlotte Simmons, i learned i went to many different colleges, and it was not meant to be duke. [laughter] but my daughte