10 Questions with Garrison Keillor Author, humorist to perform Sept. 14 with Coeur d'Alene Symphony

North Idaho, you're in for a special treat.

Garrison Keillor, America's favorite storyteller, will perform with the Coeur d'Alene Symphony on the Schuler Performing Arts Center stage at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 14.

He's donating his time and talents to support the symphony, a local nonprofit that has been a staple in the Inland Northwest's arts and culture scene for more than 40 years. It is conducted by Maestro Jan Pellant.

Keillor created and hosted the beloved weekly radio variety show "A Prairie Home Companion" from 1974 to 2016. He is a well-known author and humorist whose voice itself has served as a companion for millions of listeners through the years.

The Press reached out to Keillor ahead of his Coeur d'Alene visit to ask a few questions that fans would like to know.

In your book "WLT," people faced with speaking into a live radio microphone opted to say something patriotic or religious. What's changed in the public square? Is the era of civil discourse over? People are as civil as ever in the public square but in the private square known as the internet, there's a tendency toward graffiti. I've read the posts of perfectly nice people, friends of mine, and was surprised at how jerky they could be. They'd never say those things to your face.

Which character in "The Book of Guys" do you most empathize with? Good question. There's a character named “Gary Keillor” in there, but though he is me, I don't sympathize with him. “Omoo the Wolf Boy” is someone close to my heart and “Roy Bradley, Boy Broadcaster” but I'd say the cowboy Lonesome Shorty is my hero. He suffers from restlessness and makes a life of it and then finds a town named Pleasant Gulch that he likes but its rules are too strict and he rides away, having robbed the bank, and out on the trail he dies and goes to heaven, which is like Brown's Hotel in Denver, very nice. I like that story.

Who was your favorite poet to read out loud on "The Writer's Almanac? Maxine Kumin. She was a farmer in Maine and a great poet and everything she wrote made sense.

What would Guy Noir do in retirement? Is there a book there? There is no retirement in the fight against crime. It's a lifetime enlistment. Guy is still in the Acme building, waiting for the phone to ring, and when it does, he'll be on the case, no holds barred. I'm doing some “Prairie Home Companion” shows this winter, and I'll find out then what sort of cases he gets.

What do residents owe our communities? To respect your neighbors and look out for the children, and beyond that, from each according to his talents. I owe my community support of the arts. Great artistic occasions pull a community together. We need events in which each person feels exaltation, regardless of who they are.

If you had to do it all over again, would you? I couldn't. My life is a series of unlikely accidents that couldn't be replicated. If I started all over again, I'd work in a parking lot or I'd wind up wearing a badge and telling people at the airport to take their laptops out of their bags.

Does church make you feel better? I belong to a friendly church and feel better when I walk in and when we sing the old hymns I know, I feel wonderful, and when there's a baptism or when the Gospel strikes home or when I stand in line for Communion and we're singing 'I am the Bread of Life,' I get weepy and that makes me happy. I'm always glad I went.

Idaho and Minnesota share a long winter. How do you survive? Some would say a casserole recipe that begins with "melt a stick of butter" is a good start. I like winter and I survive it by burrowing and hanging out with friends and sleeping a lot. Ten hours a night is good.

When was the last time you laughed out loud when no one was around? Last Wednesday when my daughter and I rode the River Raft Run at the [Minnesota] State Fair and water splashed us and I walked away looking like an old man who needs to see a urologist. She laughed hard and I laughed to see her laughing.

Are things going to get better? They have to get better. The country is going down a dead-end road and for the sake of young people, we need to straighten out. It doesn't matter for me. I'm 77. But my daughter is 21, and I want her to have the same opportunities I had.

- • •

Tickets for Keillor's performance with the symphony are $35 to $75 and are available at ticketswest.com or by phone at 800-328-7327.