SOURCE: Quindlen, Anna, and Sybil Steinberg. “Anna Quindlen.” Publishers Weekly 238, no. 13 (15 March 1991): 40-1.

In the following interview, Quindlen discusses her career and her first novel, Object Lessons.

To reach Anna Quindlen's office at the New York Times one walks down a corridor past doors identified with discreet brass plaques: Arthur Gelb, Tom Wicker, Russell Baker. Neat and composed, with a serious, direct gaze, Quindlen ushers PW into her spacious digs, with a wall of windows affording an enviable view of midtown Manhattan. “They were very careful to let me know that my office was the same size as Russell Baker's,” Quindlen says, her cool suddenly replaced by an impish smile. “I wanted to say, ‘Hey, guys, I'll be happy as long as I have a wastebasket!’”

As readers of her syndicated op-ed column, “Public and Private,” in the Times are well aware, Quindlen is a no-nonsense person who...