JOAN JULIET BUCK: Let’s talk about gut feelings.

SHEILA: Guts, did you say?

JOAN JULIET BUCK: Gut feelings. G-U-T.

SHEILA: OK. Where is that exactly?

JOAN JULIET BUCK: Well, it’s when you know something and you don’t know why you know it. Do any of you have this?

LIZ: No. I’ll tell you something, though. When you’re writing, like I am, where you’re on the brink of being sued all the time, I have learned, to my peril, that if I don’t follow my gut, every time I don’t, then later I wish I did. I’d say to myself later, “But you knew this was going to cause a lot of trouble and you couldn’t back it up.”

JOAN JULIET BUCK: Is it a little voice in your head? What is it?

LIZ: Yeah. It’s a little voice in my head: “I’d better do something else about this. Nail it down a little further.” I try to take my own advice. So I guess that’s a gut feeling.

SHEILA: You have to trust your gut because it’s the only thing that separates you from everybody else. You really do have to trust it and it takes a lot of confidence and a lot of wiles to sort of say, “I’m going to go with that.”

LIZ: Well let me ask Judith Martin a question. Judith, you are one of the most elegant and precise writers that I know and whenever you say that somebody should fold their napkin a certain way, or whatever it is you’re concerned with, I’m always sure you’re right. But are you always sure you’re right?

JUDITH: On that subject, yes. I don’t mean just the napkins; the whole business of etiquette. But I notice when other people try to do it, they do it only from their point of view. So if they are receiving presents on an occasion, they say, “Nobody cares if you write thank you letters.” But if you’re sending them, they do care. So I have no doubts on that.

LIZ: OK, you say don’t trust their point of view. What point of view do you trust?

JUDITH: Mine.

LIZ: What was your educational experience in this field?

JUDITH: Like all of us of this age, we were the subjects of child rearing when we were little. It wasn’t anything special. We all learned this kind of thing. And then I always had an interest in the history of manners. And so I’ve been reading that all my life. When I make these pronouncements that I am sure are right, I’m rather doing what a judge is doing in a courtroom. Both lawyers know the law and by this time the defendant knows the law. But you have to weigh, and balance, and make some kind of decision. And that’s what I’ve been doing.

But I was going to say, on an uncharacteristically humbler level, that when I’m writing about something else – like my last book on Venice – I have information in my head because I’ve been reading Venetian history all my life. And I’m sure that some such and such happened. But when I’m putting it in a book I have to look it up. And when I look it up and when I do the research, I very often find that I have a better story in my head or my gut, if you will, than actually happened. So in that case, I’m very … when dealing with factual information, I’m very particular because I know the temptation of spinning it into better than reality.

LIZ: Well, I agree. I mean, I always regret if I didn’t research something. Many times I remember it in a slightly different way or I’ve forgotten the real point of it or something.