The Art of the Interview
Lessons from a Master of the Craft
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
THE ULTIMATE INSIDER’S LOOK AT THE FINE ART OF INTERVIEWING
“I had a fantasy the other night that this interview is so great that they no longer want me to act—just do interviews. I thought of us going all over the world doing interviews—we’ve signed for three interviews a day for six weeks.”
—Al Pacino, in an interview with Lawrence Grobel
Highly respected in journalist circles and hailed as “the Interviewer’s Interviewer,” Lawrence Grobel is the author of well-received biographies of Truman Capote, Marlon Brando, James Michener, and the Huston family, with bylines from Rolling Stone and Playboy to the New York Times. He has spent his thirty-year career getting tough subjects to truly open up and talk. Now, in The Art of the Interview, he offers step-by-step instruction on all aspects of nailing an effective interview and provides an inside look on how he elicted such colorful responses as:
“I don’t like Shakespeare. I’d rather be in Malibu.” —Anthony Hopkins
“Feminists don’t like me, and I don’t like them.”—Mel Gibson
“I hope to God my friends steal my body out of a morgue and throw a party when I’m dead.”—Drew Barrymore
“I want you out of here. And I want those goddamn tapes!”—Bob Knight
“I smoked pot with my father when I was eleven in 1973. . . . He thought he was giving me a mind-extending experience just like he used to give me Hemingway novels and Woody Allen films.”—Anthony Kiedis
In The Art of the Interview, Grobel reveals the most memorable stories from his career, along with examples of the most candid moments from his long list of famous interviewees, from Oscar-winning actors and Nobel laureates to Pulitzer Prizewinning writers and sports figures. Taking us step by step through the interview process, from research and question writing to final editing, The Art of the Interview is a treat for journalists and culture vultures alike.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
To conduct a good interview, you must"converse like a talk show host, think like a writer, understand subtext like a psychiatrist, have an ear like a musician, be able to select the best parts like a book editor and know how to piece it together dramatically like a playwright." This is the sound advice of famed Playboy interviewer Grobel, the man who scored the only in-depth interview with Patty Hearst and who got the elusive Marlon Brando to agree to a week-long interview in Tahiti. Grobel, who has also written a biography of the Hustons and contributed to numerous other publications, gives readers the equivalent of a master class in this thoroughly entertaining treatise on one of the toughest tasks in journalism. He is generous with information and journalistic tips, explaining, among other things, how to prepare for the meeting and how to get the subject to open up. An invaluable resource for aspiring journalists, the book also satisfies the voyeuristic desires of a celebrity obsessed culture by raising the curtain on the idiosyncratic demands of stars and by putting the reader in the interviewer's chair. Grobel does this throughout the book by deconstructing some of his more famous dialogues, including those of former Indiana Hoosiers coach Bobby Knight, Drew Barrymore and Barbra Streisand, who presented him with a contract drawn up by her attorneys when he arrived at her home for the interview. The book is an overstuffed treat, full of anecdotes, advice from other top writers and the kind of commiserating stories about difficult editors, hellish assignments and prickly stars that will seize the attention of both professional interviewers and their audiences.
