Candace Bushnell Talks Books, Sex and the City and the 'Distractions' of Modern Dating (Exclusive)

For Sex and the city for writer Candace Bushnell, fiction has always been one of her earliest loves. “It was really fiction written as journalism because I wanted to write fiction,” Bushnell tells PEOPLE of her famous column for New York Observerwhich inspired the hit HBO series starring Sarah Jessica Parker. “I actually wrote about Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, actually, in the ’80s. I’ve always mostly done what I’ve been doing Sex and the citywho was finding a connection, [a] social topic and writing about it.” That’s fitting for Bushnell, who, in addition to nonfiction, is the author of several novels, including The Carrie Diaries series, as well as a memoir from 2019. Is there still sex in town?

This fall, Bushnell is also hosting a literary Q&A and book signing at the Empire State Rare Book and Print Fair, September 27-29 at City College of New York. The event, which features more than 30 exhibitors from across the country, will display books, prints and historical documents, among other artifacts. Some never-before-seen items will include the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln, the first public printing of the Declaration of Independence, and Albert Einstein’s letter to former President Franklin Roosevelt.

Never miss a story — subscribe to PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Bushnell spoke with PEOPLE ahead of the fair to discuss the fair, taking on acting in her one-man show True stories of sex, success and Sex and the Cityand today’s dating challenges.

Candace Bushnell in New York on April 14, 2024.

Raymond Hall/GC Images

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What are you most looking forward to at the Empire State Rare Book and Print Fair this year? I think there’s going to be really great stuff there, like the Emancipation Proclamation and the first printing of the Declaration of Independence. I’ll be doing my little talk and Q&A and book signing, which I’m looking forward to, and my friend [designer] India Hicks will also be there. I could do a couple of little excerpts from my one-woman play, True stories of sex, success and Sex and the Citywhat will i be doing in the north east in october and november. I think it will be a great, fun event. Did anything surprise you when you were on stage as an actor in your own play? One of the things that is very rewarding about it is that the reaction is immediate. When you have a book coming out, it usually takes at least a year to write it and then another year before it comes out. You don’t hear directly from people what their reaction is, necessarily. But I’m doing a stage performance, I’m working, and it’s great to interact with people.

‘Sex and the City’ author Candace Bushnell stars in solo show about women ‘Through the Decades’

The show is somewhat interactive. It’s my life story mixed with an origin story Sex and the city and there are lots of laughs. There’s a little game I play with the audience, “Real or Not,” because so many things that happened in my real life happened in [the] they show, but they are better or worse. And that includes some of the guys Carrie dated. I am telling the story of the real Mr. Bigu, so it’s a great girls’ night out.

Candace Bushnell in New York on September 10, 2024.

Gotham/WireImage

People of all ages go, and it’s the young women who dress up and wear Manolos. Everyone is excited. It’s really rewarding — to be able to see the fans Sex and the city. I feel like watching Sex and the cityit is a rite of passage. Many women say they first saw him in college. They meet their new roommates and they all watch it together. Sure, I can watch it on Netflix now, but they would watch it on DVDs and all that. It is very useful. As for me, when I look at it, I feel very nostalgic. Like, oh my god, that was New York in the 90s and early 2000s. If Sex and the city made today, who would you cast in the lead roles? I couldn’t answer that question either. I have no idea. People are always like, what would you do Sex and the city whether they started doing it now? And my answer is always Emily in Paris.

[Carrie] would be an influencer. There would be influence, there would be social media, but she would probably meet people on dating apps. Emily just seems to have all these types in real life, which is a bit of a fantasy I guess.

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In addition to journalism, you have always been a fiction writer. Did you work on prose while writing yours Sex and the city column for New York Observer?I have always written fiction. When I first came to New York, I thought, “Oh, I’m just going to be a novelist. I’m just going to roll up my sleeves and become a novelist.” In fact, I wrote a children’s book and sent it to Simon and Schuster. I was always writing stories, sending them to publishers. This woman, who was head of children’s books at Simon and Schuster, called me and gave me the task of writing a children’s book. I think I got a thousand dollars, which seemed like a real fortune at the time.

Candace Bushnell in New York on September 12, 2024.

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

I didn’t know you had to come from a rich family to write fiction. I had to support myself. So I started working for magazines. How did you balance your fiction while working in magazines? Did you have a routine that you followed? I wrote fiction at night, in the nights when I stayed at home, and I did the whole journalistic routine during the day. I always tried to get my own column from a young age because I realized that Dickens had his own column. Many of these Dickens books were serialized. I had my own column Mademoisellebut it only lasted a short time. Where is your favorite place to write in New York? That must probably be my apartment. I write and read there. I try to read something from a book every night before going to bed. I try not to get caught up in scrolling. I feel so dependent on my phone and it just drives me crazy, but I think everyone else is too.

“Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell’s former New York apartment listed for $2.7 million

What was the last book you read that influenced you? I’m reading a book called Movement [by Clara Bingham]which talks about the first wave of feminism in the 60s and 70s. It’s actually great. It’s really interesting, about how women’s liberation transformed America from 1963 to 1973. There are so many shocking facts about what life was like for women in that decade. It wasn’t just that women couldn’t have their own bank accounts or credit cards, but unmarried women couldn’t get birth control. There are many stories of failed abortions and a whole litany of truly shocking realities about how limited women’s lives were and how dependent they were on men. I think these are really important things that we all need to remember, especially now. You were also developing a reality show about women dating in their 50s. Do you have any news about that project? I don’t have any news. Everything seems to be going pretty slow. Who knows what will happen in this TV environment. But fingers crossed.

Candace Bushnell in New York 2022. Jamie McCarthy/Getty

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What do you think are the best or worst parts of loving relationships as you get older? I think it’s almost the same for everyone. In many ways, I think it’s harder for young women, because if you’re in your 50s or 60s, you’ve had analog relationships, which were kind of easier. People just feel a little more available online. You meet some people, you connect with someone, maybe you correspond with them a little. You don’t talk, you correspond with them. And then people just disappear. The reality is that there is a lot more rejection, and that takes the fun out of it. In the 80s and 90s, of course, there was rejection, but it was always a little more mysterious. Why did that person suddenly disappear? Maybe there was a real reason. Now the reason is that they just didn’t feel like it. They just didn’t feel it [like] connecting more. The worst part is that I do the same thing. There are just a lot more distractions now. You know, they did studies. The more options people have, the less they can choose. People actually freeze when they have a lot of different options. I’m interested in someone who is actually nearby, location wise.

The PEOPLE Puzzler has arrived! How fast can you solve it? Play now! In previous interviews you described yourself as a “social anthropologist”. What do you find fascinating about the wider culture right now? I think some things are changing. Women change a lot. One of the things that I think is interesting – and I see this a lot on TikTok, so I don’t know how valid it is – but I’m seeing a lot of women for the first time speaking out against the idea of ​​being male-centered and you embrace the idea that a relationship and children will fulfill you. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the first time I’ve actually seen women who have the courage to speak up and say, “Having children is not all it’s cracked up to be. ” And even regretting women because of children, which was a complete taboo. These are women who are telling the truth about their lives, which was something that women were not allowed to do before. We’ve all drank the Kool-Aid ‘”true love will satisfy us.” Well, the person who is the most dangerous for a woman is an intimate male partner. So I think this is one of the first times that women don’t necessarily drink that Kool-Aid.Tickets for the Empire State Rare Book and Print Fair can be reserved at finefairs.com. Tickets for Bushnell’s solo show, True stories of sex, success and sex and the city, can be purchased at candacebushnell.com.

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