Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

'Hap And Leonard' Creator Needed To 'Burn Bridges' To Make It As A Writer: Joe R. Lansdale grew up poor in east Texas and worked as a janitor and in a potato field before finding success as a writer. Honky Tonk Samurai is the latest book in his mystery series.

'All My Yesterdays' Captures The Beginning Of A 50-Year Engagement: Music from Thad Jones and Mel Lewis' first and seventh Mondays at the Village Vanguard is out on a new two-CD set. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says All My Yesterdays explodes with creative energy.

Maggie Smith On The Pressures Of Acting: 'You Want So Much To Get It Right': Known for her recent work in Downton Abbey and the Harry Potter films, the Oscar-winning actress now stars in The Lady in the Van, a film about an elderly woman who lived in a van for 15 years.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

'Hap And Leonard' Creator Needed To 'Burn Bridges' To Make It As A Writer

'All My Yesterdays' Captures The Beginning Of A 50-Year Engagement

Maggie Smith On The Pressures Of Acting: 'You Want So Much To Get It Right'

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