Elizabeth Gilbert, reluctant memoirist

Last week, Time Out New York ran an interview I conducted with Elizabeth Gilbert, who has a memoir of her own out now: Eat, Pray, Love. You can read the published version here. But what I also wanted to report is that our conversation--via phone, with me in New Orleans and Liz in Philly--was hilarious. Which is what I remember about Gilbert from twelve years ago at KGB Bar. Her memoir retains that humor, even when it is talking about depression.

Liz spent the first part of our interview firing off questions about New Orleans and my pacemaker. "Hey, wait a minute, I'm supposed to be interviewing you!" I said.

Later, I told her that reading her book was like having a conversation with her. "A really long one," I added. "And I was mostly just nodding the whole time."

"You know," she said,"I really should have ended the book with 'Enough about me, what's new with you?'"