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Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh) I am pleased to welcome Jamie Lee Curtis to this program. The two-time Golden Globe winner has starred in films like 'True Lies,' of course 'Halloween,' 'Freaky Friday.' She's also enjoyed, though, great success as a best-selling author. She and her illustrator, Laura Cornell, are now out with their seventh book for kids. The new book is called 'Is There Really a Human Race?' Jamie Lee Curtis, nice to have you on the program.

Jamie Lee Curtis: This is our blind date. (Laugh) The reason I didn't wanna basically meet you before is this is a blind date. This, whatever people are seeing now, we've never met. I've never seen your show, 'cause I don't turn on a television. I used to, when you could say on and off? Now you have to use the word input.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Curtis: Input?

Tavis: I hadn't thought about it like that.

Curtis: I don't like it.

Tavis: Yeah.

Curtis: I don't know how to use it. My little 10 year old son has to turn on the TV for me.

Tavis: Well, in about 10 minutes and 12 seconds, I'm gonna ask you how it was for you.

Curtis: Okay. Well, I'm just saying I think it's kind of amazing, 'cause what's good is, I have no idea what you do. And therefore, it's organic.

Tavis: Yeah, well, I do know a little bit about you.

Curtis: I know.

Tavis: And one of the things I know is that you write books.

Curtis: I do.

Tavis: I love this title. The minute I saw it, it was a no-brainer to have a conversation with you, even though you don't watch my show.

Curtis: But it's because I don't watch - I'm sleeping four hours by the time you're on television.

Tavis: You go to bed that early?

Curtis: I do.

Tavis: Why?

Curtis: Always.

Tavis: So you look this good, is that why?

Curtis: But I get up at 5.30 every day.

Tavis: Oh yeah? And what do you do when you get up at 5.30?

Curtis: Internet, read the papers, coffee, call the East Coast, wake my friends up on the East Coast.

Tavis: So when do you - are you writing these books at 5.30?

Curtis: I write books occasionally at 5.30. I'll do a little edit at 5.30. Five-thirty is the time when the house is quiet, and no one's there.

Tavis: And you have two kids now?

Curtis: I have a daughter in college, a sophomore in college, and a 10 year old son. And a husband.

Tavis: Yeah. Well, I hope he's not watching our blind date.

Curtis: Oh, you know what? He's asleep, too.

Tavis: Okay, good. (Laugh)

Curtis: We're old. We're really old and boring. (Laugh) We are just old married people. We go to sleep early.

Tavis: You set me up so nice for a one-liner, I'm gonna leave it alone, though.

Curtis: I know; I'm glad.

Tavis: (Laugh) 'Is There Really A Human Race?' How did this title come to - I know this story, but it's a great story of how the title came to be.

Curtis: It's my little boy.

Tavis: Yeah.

Curtis: My little boy, Tommy, asked me the question. He actually came home from school one day and said, with tears in his eyes, Mommy, is there really a human race? Basically, am I in it, and why didn't you tell me, you biotch.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Curtis: That's really what he was saying. He was angry that somehow, he hadn't been let in on this, like, adult secret that it's a race. That life is nothing but one big, long competition. And it really started me obviously thinking about that question. How much of life is a competition?

Tavis: So I'm not a parent, you asked me that question when we came on the air.

Curtis: I did.

Tavis: I'm not a parent, as yet.

Curtis: 'Cause we're having our first date.

Tavis: Our first date, exactly. So I'm not a parent as yet. But I'm fascinated by how a parent responds. Because when I saw this and learned the story of Tommy asking you this question, I'm saying to myself, okay, how would I have begun to answer a question like that? So, you sound smart in the book. But at that moment, what did you have to say to Tommy?

Curtis: The best thing a parent can say to a child. I don't know. I don't know. But it's a really good question, and let me think about it.

Tavis: Let me ask you, then, when you said to Tommy, 'cause I can read that 25 different ways. When you say to your child - in answer to a question, is there really a human race? - when you say, "I don't know," there are 25 different ways to interpret that. When you said I don't know, what did you mean by, you're part of this thing called the human race, so what did you mean when you say, I don't know?

Curtis: Well, he was talking about it being a race.

Tavis: Okay.

Curtis: An actual race. Is this a race? Am I trying to beat you?

Tavis: Do I need a coach, yeah.

Curtis: Do I have a number on my back? Is everything I do in competition with someone else? That's what he was saying.

Tavis: I got it.

Curtis: Am I in a race? And my answer, which I think is the good parent - see, I think a good parent says, "I don't know." Either, 'I don't know; let's look for the answer,' or, 'I don't know; really, that's a big question. Let me think about it, and then I'll talk to you later about it.' Or if you do even know, say, 'I know the answer, but the reason I know the answer is because I studied that in school' or whatever. Meaning this idea that we're supposed to know everything - as parents, we don't take a test. We don't have to do anything except let's get it on. (Laugh)

Tavis: Yeah, exactly. (Laugh)

Curtis: That's it. Boom, you're a parent. You get no license; no one quizzes you about your beliefs or your philosophies. You don't have to write down on a sheet, saying this is what I believe about children, this is how I believe I will educate and rear my child. You just do it on the fly. Most people do it on the fly. And therefore, I think the answer I don't know is really appropriate in almost every area.

Tavis: I've told this story many times. I had a high school teacher who at the beginning of a class. Dr. Janet Otis, who just retired this year.

Curtis: God bless her. Are you gonna bring her on?

Tavis: Well, I don't know about that. But I went back to my high school to be the commencement speaker earlier this year.

Curtis: Oh, wonderful.

Tavis: And I went because she was retiring this year. So I went back to be the high school graduation speaker. And I told the story at the graduation of, speaking of I don't know, at the beginning of class every day, my advanced composition class, I love her for it to this day, she would pick a name out of the list of students in the class, and ask a question about that day's homework assignment.

And if you did not know, you could not say I don't know. If you said I don't know and that was it, you got an F for the day. But if you said Dr. Otis, I don't know, but I will know tomorrow, everything was okay. She gave you time to go home, do the research, come back tomorrow, and answer the question. So it's a brilliant story you tell about saying I don't know, but I will know, I will find out, we will learn together.

Curtis: And I will come back to you and sit with you and talk about it. It's a great question, and I just can't answer it right this second.

Tavis: All right, so then after you told Tommy I don't know but we're gonna figure this out, you started to look into this, obviously. And this comes.

Curtis: You know what I did? I walked into my house and I sat quietly and I wrote the book. That's how it happens for me. When I hear an idea for a book, I'll walk in and, and virtually what you read today, I wrote that day. That afternoon. I just sat down and it comes out pretty quickly.

Tavis: For those who don't have the text in front of them as I do, give me some sense of what's in here.

Curtis: Is there really a human race? Is it going on now, all over the place? When did it start? Who said ready, set, go? Did it start on my birthday? I really must know. And then as the race continues, the child says - I'm trying to come up, here. Sorry. No, I was trying to come with, ah, do some of us win, do some of us lose? Is winning or losing something I choose? Why am I racing, what am I winning?

Does all of my running keep the world spinning? I've wondered that question. How many times have we seen a gerbil on a gerbil wheel, and wondered is that just how the world, the world is spinning. Is it just because we are constantly generating energy to make it spin, or will it spin on its own without us? Did it spin on its own without us? Ruining it.

Tavis: Tommy's a pretty deep thinker.

Curtis: He is.

Tavis: Does he get a royalty for this?

Curtis: He gets everything. (Laugh) My kids, you know what I mean? I am merely a writer because I was a mom. And I'm only a mom because two women chose to not abort their children, and allow me to adopt them both at birth. And so, I just stay out of the way. I'm trying to be a good mom, and I've failed in many areas, and I've succeeded in many areas, and I'm flawed and contradictory.

And I don't follow through as often as I should, and I'm much better now than I used to be. But I think children are perfect. I think they're born perfect, and I think we mess them up. And I think if I just stay out of the way and let my kids kind of lead the way, my daughter gave me a couple books. My first book was for my daughter. My second book was for my daughter.

Tavis: What made you think, though, seven books ago, that tackling these provocative questions from your kids should or would allow you to become an author of children's books?

Curtis: I never thought about it for a second. Not a second.

Tavis: You just started writing.

Curtis: Not a second. My daughter walked in one day, boasting. She was four, she was beautiful, and she kind of walked in, looked like Shirley Temple. And walked in and went, you know, I used to use a diaper, but now I use a potty. And she kind of walked in and walked out, and I thought, wow. She, like, owns it. She's four. And I wrote down the words, a four-year-old's memoir of her youth. Like her good old days.

Whew, way back when, in the day, when I was younger, boy. And she was four, and I just thought it was funny. And so I started writing. That's the first book I wrote. I wrote down a list of stuff, and at the end it made me cry, and I realized it was a book, and sold it. And so I have no big, I'm not a big pontificator. I'm not gonna tell you that I sat at home going hm, let's think, what am I gonna write a book about now? This popped out of my son's mouth, and I just took it.

Tavis: How protective are you as a parent?

Curtis: Well, it's tricky. I'm loose and I'm protective. I'm contradictory. I think we are, as people, contradictory. So I'm probably looser than many parents. My daughter in her senior year of high school had no curfew.

Tavis: See, I ask that question because I know a lot of people watching, I thought this myself some days ago, thinking about our conversation, maybe Jamie Lee Curtis would have been a cool mom to have.

Curtis: You know what? I think I am a cool mom to have. And I'm a recovered drug addict and alcoholic eight years now, and I'm sure when I was using, even though no one in my personal life knew, or no one close to me thought I had a problem, I knew I had a problem. And I think that just had an effect on my being a mom regardless. And I won't lie, there's no need. But I think I'm, I play Nintendo. I listen to contemporary music, as you know. (Laugh) I have very strong opinions about it.

Tavis: The seventh book from Jamie Lee Curtis, illustrations by Laura Cornell, is 'Is There Really a Human Race?' Wonderful piece of work by Jamie Lee Curtis. It is a pleasure to meet you.

Curtis: You are a great first date.

Tavis: I was about to ask, was it good for you?

Curtis: I'm telling you. I would definitely go on a second.

Tavis: Oh.

Curtis: I wouldn't put out on the second, but I'd be...(laugh)

Tavis: I can wait. (Laugh)

Curtis: You're gonna be waiting a long time in this case. (Laugh) But you know what? Hey, I'm just saying I - that would not be my bent.

Tavis: Yeah. Well, you can come back some other time, for another date.

Curtis: Oh, well, we'll have a nice, long relationship.

Tavis: And give my regards to your husband.

Curtis: I will give him more than (unintelligible).

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh) On that note...

Curtis: I'll give him my regards.

Tavis: Yeah, you give him your regards. (Laugh) And since it's a family show, that's it.

Curtis: How is it a family show? It's, like, at 4:00 in the morning.

Tavis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not really. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International.

Curtis: Oh, I love PRI.

Tavis: So do I, they pay me a nice check. Check your local listings. (Laugh) See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night, thanks for watching, and keep the faith.

Curtis: Keep the faith.

Tavis: There you go.