Ron McLarty

Ron McLarty: Writing, especially novel writing, isn't a communal act unless you're part of a TV team and unlike being an actor - which is how I made my living for years - you don't need some nod of approval to get on with it. I'd always find some time during my daily auditions and occasional jobs to spend a few hours with my pencil and paper at the New York Public Library.

Ron McLarty: I wrote 'The Memory of Running' as a play when my mother and father were actually killed in a car accident up in Maine. My mother lived six weeks and my father lived 10 days after the accident. And in this odd way that I work, I read the play about three months later and I thought, you know, it's too big for a play, it has so much more in it. But because I wrote it as dialogue, I had the voices of Smithy and Norma and Bethany in my head.

Ron McLarty: I have a very pronounced solitary part of me that always seems at odds with the performer. While I love acting and, of course, am very, very thankful for all the opportunities I've been given, the introspective side had always searched for a personal expression.