I love hearing about your editing process on the interview. Weird to edit human speech, which is so damn human! Back in the day I edited the Playboy Interview (also a renowned q&a) with Michael Jordan, which Mark Vancil conducted across a season of Bulls games, especially on the road, when Michael actually had time to talk. I received a dozen transcripts, and had to knit them into coherent talk. Which I tried valiantly to do, while honoring Michael’s actual words. I was super nervous when we published, because in some sense I had created Michael Jordan in the editing process. Reassurance arrived quickly: Michael said it was the best piece about him ever done. He later turned the interview into a coffee table book. Whew!
Amazing, Peter! Wow. Sooo cool. Talk about epic--Playboy interviews are fantastic.
And what an honor to hear that from Michael Jordan.
Did you know Plimpton and Heffner were friends? Heffner started Q&As because Plimpton had shown the way for the long-form interview and because they needed a certain amount of text in the text-to-photos requirement for the magazine to be shipped through the mail. I just love that.
What a wonderful description of the interviewing process. I did it with much less famous people at the beginning of my career, loved the results of a good interview but decided I was a lousy interviewer. I ended up planning studies, hiring seriously good interviewers, editing the results from transcripts (which I was good at) and writing a number of books using this process. I invented a book form that I later realised had already been invented by the much more famous Studs Terkel from your fair city, explaining views using almost nothing but the interview material. It is definitely a strange process to interview people, as you say, but a very rewarding one.
I love hearing about your editing process on the interview. Weird to edit human speech, which is so damn human! Back in the day I edited the Playboy Interview (also a renowned q&a) with Michael Jordan, which Mark Vancil conducted across a season of Bulls games, especially on the road, when Michael actually had time to talk. I received a dozen transcripts, and had to knit them into coherent talk. Which I tried valiantly to do, while honoring Michael’s actual words. I was super nervous when we published, because in some sense I had created Michael Jordan in the editing process. Reassurance arrived quickly: Michael said it was the best piece about him ever done. He later turned the interview into a coffee table book. Whew!
Amazing, Peter! Wow. Sooo cool. Talk about epic--Playboy interviews are fantastic.
And what an honor to hear that from Michael Jordan.
Did you know Plimpton and Heffner were friends? Heffner started Q&As because Plimpton had shown the way for the long-form interview and because they needed a certain amount of text in the text-to-photos requirement for the magazine to be shipped through the mail. I just love that.
Am excited to read the interview you did with Marias now that I have the inside scoop! I love your Kenzaburō Ōe interview.
Thank you, my fried!
What a wonderful description of the interviewing process. I did it with much less famous people at the beginning of my career, loved the results of a good interview but decided I was a lousy interviewer. I ended up planning studies, hiring seriously good interviewers, editing the results from transcripts (which I was good at) and writing a number of books using this process. I invented a book form that I later realised had already been invented by the much more famous Studs Terkel from your fair city, explaining views using almost nothing but the interview material. It is definitely a strange process to interview people, as you say, but a very rewarding one.
Being a good editor of interviews is such a talent. It's so hard to cut anything when you've been in it.
Ah yes, we all have to murder our darlings, whatever we write. I love the challenge of editing interviews to keep to the original but get them right.