What to ask the woman who's asked it all

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Q: How do you think you've evolved as a host? Has your method to approaching an interview changed?

A: When I started to do interviews in Buffalo at WBFO, I was only 23 years old. And I was no taller than I am today, and I looked really much younger than I was, so everybody who I interviewed seemed older, more mature, more knowledgeable. I think many of my questions were asked out of pure curiosity. Now that I'm the same height but older, and I've read a lot more, I think my questions come more out of experience and a kind of depth of knowledge than they could have when I was younger.

Also, I think my voice has changed. When I listen back to my very early shows, which I really try not to do, I'm amazed -- I sound like this feminist Minnie Mouse! When I get nervous my voice tends to rise about an octave, and I was like this fast-talking little mouse. I can't believe I was allowed on the radio! But I think that says something about the age of the volunteer in public radio when I got started.

Q: Griel Marcus of The New York Times described your voice as "characteristically eager but not naïve. You hear enthusiasm but also experience and skepticism." After doing thousands of interviews, how are you still curious?

A: I grew up in this world where reading books and thinking about books and discovering new books was important. I still feel that way about books and movies and music, and I'll never get tired of music and movies and books. I might get tired of the responsibility, the work and the obligation of a daily show at some point. But I don't think I'll ever get tired of music. So if you're talking about things that you love, you're going to be curious about it. And likewise about the world. When we have soldiers in Iraq, how can you not care about that? How can you not care about our health insurance policies? I just don't think that's the kind of thing you get tired of. That's the greatest blessing of the work: it encompasses the most interesting things in the world.

Q: Is it difficult to temper your personal reactions when interviewing a guest like Mickey Spillane, who tells you that writing "is just a job," or actress Uta Hagen, who argues with you that learning about acting is none of your business?

A: With Mickey Spillane, I had exactly the same reaction you did. 'You're so into these books, you're so famous for these books, how can it be 'just a job'?' I was disappointed in his answer, but it revealed something about him I was totally unprepared for. As was the fact that he was a Jehovah's Witness and collects china. It's inexplicable to me that the father of two-fisted, hard-boiled fiction is collecting china and being a Jehovah's Witness. But that's part of what makes the work so interesting is that people are not how you'd expect and they're really contradictory.

Uta Hagen is another example of really contradictory. Here's a person who's revered for being an acting teacher and she's telling me that she refuses to talk to me about the craft of acting because it's like a magician doesn't give away their trade secrets, and she doesn't think an actor should either. We intentionally put her [in the book] back to back with Michael Caine, because after she explains why she thinks actors shouldn't talk about the craft of acting, Michael Caine has these incredible insights into performing in front of a camera, using his eyes, using his body, his vocal placement. And, they're both right. They're both totally true to themselves, and they're both totally opposite on that point.

Q: But you were eventually able to explain to Hagen why you thought your question was necessary. How does it feel to break through that barrier?

A: What I liked about her challenging me is that sometimes interviewing is like question, answer, question, answer, and that's fine. But other times there's this real whammy that's thrown at you, and when a guest says 'I refuse to answer' or 'You can't ask me that,' it really throws me for a loop. And I like it. In a situation like that, if somebody is either hostile or challenging, I like to examine the problem and talk that through -- I think that makes for provocative radio. Another variation on that in the book is the Gene Simmons interview. There we just kind of hurled insults at each other -- it wasn't this sort of reflective thing like it was with Uta Hagen -- but I like both of those interviews for really shaking things up.

Q: You write that interviewing has taught you never to make assumptions about what someone might find offensive.

A: Yes. Years ago, I was interviewing a now-deceased trombonist and arranger Melba Liston, who started playing in the late `40s. When I interviewed her, we were talking about what it was like to be the only woman in the Big Band. So I asked her what it was like on the bus being the only woman? She said, 'The men, they could just stick it out the window and do their thing. And a woman can't do that!' I thought, 'What a really great answer!'

So then, when I interviewed the singer Anita O'Day who got started around the same period, I asked her the same question. She said, 'What are you talking about? Are you crazy?' And so, with the same question, one person was really funny and happy to confide, and the other person thought I was from the planet Neptune.

Q: When you're interviewing someone, you say you're always thinking about what question should come next, and internally judging the show as you go. How does that play out in your head?

A: I'm always editing in my head. I'm not involved in the editing process after the tape is recorded -- the producers take care of that. But to make their lives more manageable, I'm not only thinking what question comes next, I'm thinking 'Is this question something that I can build on? Is this something we can use? Is an answer comprehensible enough?'

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