The Hot Seat: Interviews
In interviews I rarely manage to say what I mean, or I don’t realize until later what I meant to say or should have said. Writers, who may spend months and years fussing over words to get them just right, are somehow expected to talk off the top of their heads during interviews. It can be a greater challenge than writing a story or a novel, for it calls on skills the writer doesn’t necessarily possess. One may be tongue-tied on the spot but later able to imagine carefree witticisms, brilliant comebacks. Roger Angell calls this condition “retardant Wildeanism.”
Interviews I have done that manage to be informative or enlightening were conducted by superb, understanding interviewers. Here are a few.
—BAM