"You don't know when you're pollinating the world with your attempts how they'll come back to you. It might be completely nonlinear. You knock on the same door 20 times and then it's actually a door to the left, down the hall, across the country that opens for you."
As a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony Award nominee, and the recipient of the MacArthur Genius Fellowship, playwright Sarah Ruhl is no stranger to accolades. After writing about the passage of time during the pandemic, her experience developing Bell's palsy after pregnancy, and her friendship through letters with a poet in remission from cancer, Sarah is sharing the lessons she taught her students at Yale in her new book, Lessons from My Teachers: From Preschool to the Present. This intimate essay collection is a testament to the bond that develops between teacher and student and how we learn from one another.
In this conversation, Sarah and I discuss her feminist father who encouraged her to follow her desires, what she learned from an important teacher about handling rejection, and why we should all send a note of gratitude *right now* to the important teachers in our life—before it's too late to matter.
Sarah is a canny observer of the human condition, a prolific and gifted writer, and a truth teller whose stories unlock truths about the human condition. To read more inspiring stories from Firestarters like Sarah, preorder my book “Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age” at firedupbook.com.
My new book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark Into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age, is available for preorder! Out in June 2025, Fired Up will give you the formula for finding your unique spark and show you how to use it to start fires in your life. By preordering, you can enroll for FREE in Firestarter University, a year-long online program that includes live monthly workshops, workbooks and resources, accountability check-ins, and a community to help you succeed.
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