I've been giving interviews for the last 25 or 30 years, more often than not answering the same questions over and over again, ad nauseum.
I find that talking about myself is often the most boring thing in the world. Sixty per cent of interviews I find mechanical.
Panic does not help, even if you are unable to answer. Try to ask questions to the interviewers as well and it should be impressive enough.
Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down." (CBS interview, March 6, 1983)
I actually interviewed other people about myself, and that alerted me to the fact that I had to really investigate my memories.
I like to talk on the cell when I do interviews. That way, I double my chances of getting brain cancer: from the cell phone, and from the questions.
I once was interviewed and got so exasperated that I said, 'What do you want, a shopping list?' They kept asking, 'What's in this picture?'
With every interview you feel like you lose a piece of yourself, and with every bad review you become just that little bit more bitter. It is horrible in a way.
When you do an interview with me, you're talking to a cheap imitation of the person that I really am. There's no magic in my words, it's just me talking.
Writers have told me more than once that I'm a better interview in defeat than in victory, which is a compliment I am extremely proud of.
I think the day that I become comfortable doing interviews and going on talk shows is the day that I don't know what it is to be a human being anymore.
Generally, if you preface an interview request with, 'I'm an author writing a book,' for some reason, that seems to open a lot of doors.
Most of the people interviewing me are far more square than me. I think it's the ET thing. I'm sitting there, my hair is combed, and I'm in a suit.
It's the interviewee's job to know that his privacy is going to be invaded on some level. Otherwise, you are better off not doing the interview.
I like radio because you can do an hour-long interview and then three days later have a finished piece.
I've been criticized because I've had the temerity to speak out and done a couple of interviews since I left office. I don't find anything surprising about that.
For whatever reason, I tend to get reporters who are maybe in the middle of intense therapy, and they turn what's supposed to be a professional interview into therapy for themselves.
Job-interviewing is just a skill. Like any skill, some people have more of a predisposition for it than others.
I always like the idea of doing interviews with somebody but completely seriously not ever mentioning what that person is generally known for.
When I started, there were no big interviews, no television, no profiles and all that. The publishers were quite shockingly uncommercial, but they did look after their writers.
Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard." (Interview with NEH chairman Bruce Cole, , July/Aug. 2002, Vol. 23/No. 4)
