Riffs: Lillian Bridwell-Bowles, director, Communication Across the Curriculum at LSU, English professor

“The Australian film My Brilliant Career revolves around the self-centered Sybylla, a young girl so dedicated to being a writer that not even sexy young Sam Neill can alter her course. I saw the film in 1979 as I was finishing graduate school and leaving my first real love for a job. I tracked down the book shortly thereafter. Sybylla’s opening words in the novel are, “I make no apologies for being egotistical.” This was a first line that I needed more than I will tell you. The great cinematography and textures of the Australian outback didn’t hurt either.”