TIME’s Andrea Sachs recently sat down with Rita Mae Brown to chat about her latest book, The Purrfect Murder, the feminist movement, Martina Navratilova, and being “the only lesbian in America”. Her photograph on the left shows her with her cat, Sneaky Pie. Read the full Q&A.

Your 1973 book Ruby Fruit Jungle was a groundbreaking lesbian novel, and a media phenomenon. How did that change your life?

Well, I didn’t know I was going to be famous. All that happens, and I was like, what is all this crap? Excuse me for swearing.

That’s okay. What did you expect the reaction to be?

None, because nobody wanted to publish it. I mean, I’ve got splinters in my nose from the best publishing doors in town. Finally this little tiny company that just started, called Daughters Press, gave me $1,000 and published it. I never had a book review, never had an ad, didn’t have a hard cover until I guess one of its anniversaries. It exploded and they couldn’t keep up with the sales. They couldn’t print them fast enough. So Bantam bought it. [ A million copies were sold.]
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