YouSaid · the spoken record

Tayari Jones

lines on the record: 57
first: 2026-02-24
most recent: 2026-02-24
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, and she remembered, and I had to be made good on my word. And so then I started thinking of myself as, oh, I'm the one that's the writer.”
2026-02-24 · The Oprah Podcast · Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Dr. Janetta Cole, her big voice. Yeah. And I had met her at the freshman reception, and she asked what I was interested in. And I just felt inspired. And I said, I would like to be a writer. And then I saw her later on campus. This was the 80s. Remember in the 80s, everyone thought they were going to lose weight by walking really fast and moving their arms? Remember that? Yeah. Yeah. So she was doing that. And I said, hello. And she said in her big voice, Tayari the writer. And it was like she just touched me with that. Like I said this was what I was going to do.”
2026-02-24 · The Oprah Podcast · Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I sign up for the writing class even though I was a freshman and freshman were not allowed to take it. I thought that was discrimination and I thought I should be allowed and I didn't know you could learn writing in the classroom. And so I may or may not have approximated the signature of my advisor so that I could, because this was before a computer. And so I took the class and she asked me a simple question. She said to me, What are you thinking about? And I got ready to tell her, and she said, no, don't tell me, write it down. And with that, she became my first audience. She took me seriously, so I took myself seriously. And also I was at Spellman in, I joined Spellman College in 1987. Spellman was founded in 1881, but it wasn't until 1987 that Spellman College got our first black woman president. We're a black woman's college.”
2026-02-24 · The Oprah Podcast · Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was something your mother didn't have to worry about because, to the best of my knowledge, you know, no one has ever gotten pregnant in the library. But I said that once, and a librarian was like, well, actually in the central branch, but I'm going to say seldom. Yeah, seldom. But when I got to Spelman College, I met a writer and she was my teacher. Her name is Pearl Claig. Yes, it's the Oprah's Book Club selection”
2026-02-24 · The Oprah Podcast · Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I worked hard. I did. And I like to read. I like to write. But when I was a girl growing up, if you like to read and write, people did not assume that it meant that you were smart or that if you like to read, they didn't think it meant you were intellectual. They just thought it meant you were a nice girl.”
2026-02-24 · The Oprah Podcast · Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we have those. We have that record. My mother has them in her jewelry box. It's about 50 letters. And I hate that we don't have that record anymore. So I think that's why the letter form comes back in my work. It's me trying to keep it alive. But also what we share in writing. Different than what we share in speaking. It's also different than what we text or email. There's a certain intentionality because you're putting it on the page for the record. And I was very interested in what these friends and some other characters, what they will say to each other. On the record”
2026-02-24 · The Oprah Podcast · Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thank you for all of you for such careful and generous reading. Whenever you write a novel, you're asking so much of a reader for so much of their time. You know, we're all so busy and our attention is everywhere. So for someone to give you the gift of their time to read 300 pages, I would like to start by just saying thank you for giving me that chance. You know, I write letters. I'm a letter writer and I lament that letter writing is, you know, we're losing it as a cultural form. I have all the letters. My grandfather lived eight miles from my grandmother. And just thinking these days when people didn't have cars, that was eight walking miles. And so he courted her by letter.”
2026-02-24 · The Oprah Podcast · Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT