Garrison Keillor

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Birthday:

7 August 1942, Anoka, Minnesota, USA

Birth Name:

Gary Edward Keillor

Height:

193 cm

Garrison Keillor was born Gary Edward Keillor on August 7, 1942, in Anoka, a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was one of six children in the family. His father was of English, as well as Welsh and German, descent, and his paternal grandfather was Canadian. His maternal grandparents were Scottish immigrants.Keillor graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in English in 1966. There he began his broadcasting career on the student-operated radio station, named Radio K. In 1969 he began writing for The New Yorker. On July 6, 1974 he started "A Prarie Home Companion" in a St. Paul college theatre before an audience of twelve people. In 1987, he moved to New York where, in 1989, he started "The American Radio Company", which after four seasons returned to the name "A Prarie Home Companion" in 1993, and is again based in Minnesota. From 1996-2001 Keillor authored an advice column, titled "Mr. Blue", on Salon.com. He resigned after having a heart surgery in 2001. Since June of 2005 Garrison Keillor has been a syndicated newspaper columnist at Salon.com.Garrison Keillor is a prolific author with over 100 of written or recorded works. He is also a storyteller, performance artist, radio host and comedian. He published eleven books, including three books for children. He is married to Jenny Lind Nilsson, a violinist in the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, with whom he has a daughter. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife and daughter, and owns a Manhattan apartment. Show less «

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.

I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.

Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn.

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

I've wanted to be a writer since I was a boy, though it seemed an unlikely outcome since I showed no real talent. But I persevered and event...Show more »

I've wanted to be a writer since I was a boy, though it seemed an unlikely outcome since I showed no real talent. But I persevered and eventually found my own row to hoe. Ignorance of other writers' work keeps me from discouragement and I am less well-read than the average bus driver. Show less «

I am in favor of corruption so long as it makes people truly happy. And so long as somebody writes a good confessional memoir like John Dean...Show more »

I am in favor of corruption so long as it makes people truly happy. And so long as somebody writes a good confessional memoir like John Dean's "Blind Ambition." Show less «

I love New York, and I'm drawn to a certain intensity of life, but I've just never felt like I want to escape from the Midwest. A writer liv...Show more »

I love New York, and I'm drawn to a certain intensity of life, but I've just never felt like I want to escape from the Midwest. A writer lives a great deal in his own head, and so one intuitively finds places where your head is more clear. New York for me is one of those places. Show less «

When you're in your 20s, your 30s, even, you have - at least, I had - vast ambitions, and you sit around mooning about these things, and you...Show more »

When you're in your 20s, your 30s, even, you have - at least, I had - vast ambitions, and you sit around mooning about these things, and you're depressed, because you haven't done them. And it takes you a long time to come to the realization that if you can't be John Updike, well, then, you can't. If you can't be Philip Roth, then don't. So you'll do this other thing instead. And maybe you'll be writing the very thing that John Updike and Philip Roth wish to hell they could. They're neither of them particularly funny; maybe that's what they've always wanted to do. Show less «

I think the most un-American thing you can say is "You can't say that".

[summarizing a proposed film project] It's got a funeral, it's got a big Fourth of July parade and, you know, two people taking each other's...Show more »

[summarizing a proposed film project] It's got a funeral, it's got a big Fourth of July parade and, you know, two people taking each other's clothes off. Everything we look for in a movie. Show less «

Years ago, manhood was an opportunity for achievement, and now it's a problem to be overcome.