Five Interviews Worth Your Time

This week, I was the answerer, rather than the asker. I was interviewed a couple times, once about a story I wrote, and once simply about my writing and work. Particularly during the latter, I got to noticing how funny it felt offering "answers" -- to pin myself down. To circle around intimate things (and I do consider writing to be intimate) with someone I had never spoken with before. I was a little spooked, but the leap into the deep end was exciting. In addition to giving me more empathy for the people who I badger with questions myself, I also was intrigued by this alternative, back-end way of crafting a narrative ... and, even though I wasn't the one asking the questions, a way of discovering things I hadn't known before.

Which is to say, I've been thinking of the art of the interview. That means that I'm looking to the work of others -- like, for example, The Guardian's "great interviews of the 20th century" series. Here are five interesting interviews -- with very different stripes:

• Malcolm X is interviewed by Alex Haley (1963)
• Jorge Luis Borges is interviewed by The Paris Review (1967)
• Edith Grossman is interviewed by Guernica (2005)
• Ray Bradbury is interviewed by The Paris Review (2010)
• Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie is interviewed by Terry Gross on "Fresh Air" (2013)

Comments

[Ben]

There must be something in the intimate nature of the interview; the face to face between two people that creates an almost sacred space for the two to connect in ways that are impossible when speaking in front of an audience. When it's 1 on 1, whether over the phone or in person, there's the uneasiness of knowing that whatever you say will be closely scrutinized. At least that's how I feel.

There's something about revealing some of your more vulnerable layers in the classroom as well, when you spend an entire year having small side conversations with students, and trying to study them closely to figure out what exactly is making them tick; all the time, your students studying you as well. You can't find that sort of intimacy when speaking in broad terms, or writing for publication, as the distance between you and the reader creates a safe gulf at times, removing a bit of the intimacy. Or maybe that's just how I write, saving the more personal and grey details for elsewhere.

Thanks for the link to the interviews, I'll be sharing with my English teachers this coming year.