It's weird being on the other side. For 20 years I was a regular contributor to the New York Times. I've interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people - my office is full of piles of completely full reporters' notebooks as well and dozens of old tapes from covering various stories over my career. Now, as the publicity jaugernaut starts to role on the book, I am starting to get interviewed myself.
You might think I would be perfectly trained for such a position, but it is actually pretty different. Obviously I can no longer control the final product. Who knows what quotes they will use? I used to know what the questions would be. And on this last item, you would think someone who titled a book "The Mama's Boy Myth" might have been prepared for this question I got from a magazine writer yesterday: "So, what are the top 5 myths about mothers and sons?" Of course I was able to answer it, but it threw me for a second.
But then as I started to answer, the interviewer said, "hold on, hold on - I can't type that fast and that's a great quote." Ah, that brought me back to my reporting days and made me relax.
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