It all begins with an idea. Mona Simpson and David O. Russell discuss Casebook at the Hammer Museum.

Mona Simpson speaks to Steve Bertrand about becoming the namesake for Homer Simpson’s mother. Mona’s husband was a writer for the show The Simpsons. In the first episode, he used her name and continued to use it.

Young writers often ask Mona Simpson about how to jumpstart their writing careers. She says anyone interested in writing should read a lot and practice their writing skills—and not worry about doing it in any “right” way.

She confesses to a love of libraries and that she continues to learn from other writers.

Michael Silverblatt interviews Mona Simpson about her new novel. My Hollywood (Knopf), corkscrews its way into the heart of a Santa Monica marriage, a marriage in which child raising duties are agreed to be divided fifty-fifty between husband and wife.

Michael Silverblatt interviews Mona Simpson about Off Keck Road (Knopf), her delicately textured and beautifully detailed novella about small-town life in Wisconsin, providing the occasion for this conversation about women, romance and the decision not to marry.

The search for family in Mona Simpson's novels is nearly a sacred quest. Here she explores a father's need to rule the nation and a daughter's desire to be his subject.

For writer Mona Simpson, the search for family is a spiritual quest, and in this novel, the search for a father becomes nearly theological.