- So, I've read several of your books over the years.

I really like "Going Clear", and I love "Mr. Texas".

I can't wait to read this one.

"Mr. Texas" kinda left it open-ended.

Are you thinking about maybe doing a follow on for that?

- You know, I have thought about it.

- [Questioner 1] Okay.

- And it's been an option for a television series.

- [Questioner 1] Ooh!

- So maybe, you know, that's the way it'll carry on.

But I feel that way about "The End of October" too that, when you create these characters, you kinda fall in love with them and then you kinda miss them when they're not in your life, you know?

And I can, - Yeah.

- I feel like I could pick up at any moment and go back and revisit those characters and take them on a new adventure.

- [Questioner 1] Well, if you write any sequels, I'll be reading them.

(everyone laughs) - All right, well, thank you.

I'm honored to have you as a reader.

- I mean, it is interesting, whether it's the legislature or it's Al-Qaeda, or it's the Church of Scientology, - They all have a lot in common.

(audience laughing) - and weirdly, if you think of the Middle East Peace Process as an institution of its own, like, you are very good at telling the stories of insular inscrutable institutions.

Like, getting inside.

To me, that also feels... Is that's not something you're thinking about going in?

What nut can I crack?

What black box can I crack?

- Getting into death row was the hardest part of it.

- Well, that's one too, right?

Yeah.

- And fortunately, it was this Catholic deacon named Ronnie Lastovica who had the bright idea of marrying these nuns to the women on death row.

And thanks to the chaplains at the prison, - [Host] Yep.

I was able to get onto death row and actually witness the nuns - [Host] Yep.

- and women on death row interacting on three occasions.

- It takes a village, oh, as it always does.

Sir?

- I've read all your books, I can't- - [Lawrence] No, you haven't.

Nobody's read all my books.

(audience laughs) - I can't wait to read this one.

But there's something going on this week that I wanted to ask you as a journalist.

We have a horrible atrocity going on in Syria, and the news says there's over 900 people murdered.

The facts that are coming out is it's over 3500 people that are murdered- - [Host] In Syria, you're talking?

- In Syria.

- Yeah.

- And we have ex-Al-Qaeda people wearing suits now who are being polished up as a world leader, and they're murdering Alawites, Christians, and Druze, et cetera, et cetera.

And the old adage is, "If there are no Jews, there's no news."

What do you think about that, where there's been 17 wars of Arab against Arab and you get nothing, - Yeah, we're not reading much about this at all.

- and then on October 8th, we had a worldwide protest with printed signs, et cetera.

- You know, I went to Syria in 2006.

And the reason I went is exactly in a way, I never heard anything from it.

And the Middle East is a valuable region and that's great for reporters.

People like to talk, but why weren't the Syrians talking?

And so that was the whole reason that I went, and I thought, "Well, in order to get the story, people make their minds up about America through watching our movies.

So I'll go to Syria and watch their movies and talk to the filmmakers and so on, and see if I can figure out what's happening there."

And by the way, it was the least religious Muslim country I'd ever been in.

There were, you know, ladies undergarment stores with really lewd bras and panties on the front.

This was, you know, people would be executed in most, you know?

So anyway, I went and what I found is that everybody I talked to had been beaten by their parents, their teachers, the police and so on.

The one thing that all the movies had in common was physical violence.

And so it raised the question, is it the culture that's so violent or was it the tyrants that imposed this on the culture?

I still don't know the answer to that question.

There was a young Alawite woman, Alawites are a minority sect in Syria, about 10% of the population and the Assad family were Alawites.

And the people who are Alawites are frightened that, they had been all along, that if the Sunni Muslims take power they're gonna be exterminated.

And that's what you're speaking to and that might happen.

But anyway, this young woman ran away to join the revolution.

And her father told her, "If you don't come home, I'm gonna kill your mother."

And he killed her mother.

(audience gasps) And so, in a way, this is part of what we're talking about, - [Host] Yeah.

- the inscrutable part of it.

How can you understand a culture like that?

I wish Syria every good thing.

I mean, there're so many wonderful people that I met there - [Host] Yep.

- and so many that are in the Arab diaspora, but it's hard and dangerous work to be reporting on all that stuff, and so that might be a part of it.

I think the preoccupation with what's going on in Gaza and the West Bank, it's understandable.

There might be an objection to it being overcovered and this being undercovered.

But, you know, beyond that I can't explain it anymore.

- While we change out questioners, let me just observe that I think to the media question, which is really why is the press not covering this?

One of the things that is absolutely a consequence of the moment in the media right now is that coverage of things happening overseas is so much less that we here just don't know about it.

Like, in my house, we read The Guardian every day - Yeah.

- in part to try to solve for the fact that American media are largely - I see, I see.

- not covering this stuff.

- And also, we're being firehose by the domestic news and- - Yeah, it is a firehose turned up to the highest setting, is it not?

- Right.

So if things were a little less berserk- - Maybe there'd be a space for it.

- Yeah, yeah.

- But I also think cutting all the foreign bureaus, which has happened in so many places, is really having a consequence in terms of our basic understanding of stuff like that.

- That's right, and you know, we don't have like reporters in Damascus bureaus and stuff like that that we used to be.

- Used to.

- When Ted Koppel told me when he joined ABC, they had like 40 something foreign bureaus.

- Yep.

- And I don't know if they have any.

- Yeah, it's just awful.

Sir?

- Yeah.

Well, I didn't get together with the other guy on this.

Have you seen the movie "Syriana"?

- [Lawrence] Yeah.

- When I saw it, it kinda gave me an understanding of why someone would do a suicide bombing.

What did you think of that?

- Well, suicide bombing I've written about a lot.

It's interesting 'cause when we're talking about suicide bombing, we're talking about Islamic culture in that context.

- [Questioner 2] Yeah, yeah.

You'd be a martyr.

- In the Koran, the idea of suicide is so taboo that, if you commit suicide you'll spend all eternity committing suicide in the same method.

Now, is that the worst prohibition you've ever heard?

And the excuse for suicide bombing has several factors.

One is we are weak, we don't have ballistic missiles.

The only way that we can strike is to make humans into bombs.

And there's truth in that.

But I think the motivation of martyrdom is highly valued in Islam.

And if you can sell suicide bombing as martyrdom and not as suicide, then you immediately go to paradise and you have all the gifts- - What was 9/11 but effectively one, big exercise in martyrdom.

- Right.

- Right?

- Right, and if you believe that they're all in paradise right now, no doubt a lot of young, especially young men who are in desperate times - Yeah.

- in their own countries with little hope, for instance, to get married.

One of the things you read about in here is that the Gazan jihadis, on October 7th, were promised $10,000 if they kidnapped, if they brought back a kidnapped Jew.

That's enough to get married.

- Yeah.

- And it's hard to accumulate any capital, but you have to have enough money.

Typically you have to have an apartment and a job and cash in the bank before Daddy's gonna say, "You can marry my daughter."

And so, young men become middle-aged men without any prospect of having a wife or a family.

And it's a desperate situation.

And then, you know, origins of terrorism, there's not a single thing.

Poor education, political chaos, repression, lack of education, gender apartheid, you know, there's a long list of contributing things, - Yep.

- but they're all like tributaries.

They flow into this river of despair that runs through the Middle East and South Asia.

And that's where the suicide bombings come from.

They don't accomplish anything, except they provoke.

There's a long history now of suicide bombings, but no history of success.

- Yeah.

- [Questioner 2] Thanks for your answer.

- Thank you.

- All right, got one more back there and then we'll wrap.

Sir?

- [Questioner 3] I'll try to get it on a lighter note.

- Okay.

- First of all, my wife downloaded your book this morning, so you've already sold one.

(audience laughing) - [Host] See, look at that.

Isn't that great?

You got it.

(audience applauding) Making business happen.

- I've been married twice in my life, both times to ex nuns.

(audience member laughs) - Oh, do you?

Were you responsible for their exness?

(audience applauding) - No, but I did get in the habit.

(everyone cheering and laughing) (audience applauding) - [Host] How about that?

- All right, that's a great one, yeah.

- All right, I mean, look, that is a mic drop if ever I heard it.

- Yeah.

(audience laughing) - Please give Lawrence Wright a big hand.

Thank you for coming.

- Thank you.

(audience applauding) - All right, that's great.