July 8th, 2009 | 
Author: The Art of the Interview Lessons from a Master of the Craft
To conduct a good interview, you must “converse like a talk show host, think like a writer, understand subtext like a psychiatrist, have an ear like a musician, be able to select the best parts like a book editor and know how to piece it together dramatically like a playwright.” This is the sound advice of famed Playboy interviewer Grobel, the man who scored the only in-depth interview with Patty Hearst and who got the elusive Marlon Brando to agree to a week-long interview in Tahiti. Grobel, who has also written a biography of the Hustons and contributed to numerous other publications, gives readers the equivalent of a master class in this thoroughly entertaining treatise on one of the toughest tasks in journalism. He is generous with information and journalistic tips, explaining, among other things, how to prepare for the meeting and how to get the subject to open up. An invaluable resource for aspiring journalists, the book also satisfies the voyeuristic desires of a celebrity obsessed culture by raising the curtain on the idiosyncratic demands of stars and by putting the reader in the interviewer?s chair. Grobel does this throughout the book by deconstructing some of his more famous dialogues, including those of former Indiana Hoosiers coach Bobby Knight, Drew Barrymore and Barbra Streisand, who presented him with a contract drawn up by her attorneys when he arrived at her home for the interview. The book is an overstuffed treat, full of anecdotes, advice from other top writers and the kind of commiserating stories about difficult editors, hellish assignments and prickly stars that will seize the attention of both professional interviewers and their audiences.
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User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Full of name dropping
This book is taking me forever to get through. It IS very interesting, but it is less about teaching the art of interviewing and more about all the examples that the author has experienced. I was hoping for an instructional book, which it is, but you have to dig through tons of expamples and stories to get to the real lessons. Sometimes the examples are very helpful and other times they seem to be there just to prove that the author knows famous people. This is not the best way to learn how to interview. It’s more about the experiences of a professional.
5 Stars Book purchase
Book arrived on time, in excellent condition and I even had a follow-up contact from the seller to be sure I got it. Good experience.
4 Stars So Amazon, my first question for you is….
As one aspiring to become an interviewer, Grobel’s book acts as what I feel, a decent guide for even the most amateur interviewer. Sure, as many have pointed out, this book does seem to double as a memoir. Still, one can find pointers, or at least relevance.
Particularly what was fascinating about this book was just the way in which he talked about his interviews. I mean, it is always good to have a presence of sorts when interviewing, and this seems to come out in his book.
Now my greatest problem is that it is hard to equate interviews with Barrymore to interviews with the local police chief; however, Grobel does make it seem possible enough, and that is what matters.
5 Stars Great book!
A wonderful read…there’s some really juicy information about some high profile people in here too. Very accessible and highly interesting.
3 Stars More of a Memior
I didn’t buy this book to pick up tips – I’ve been an interviewer / writer for most of my life and am comfortable with my style. I bought the book because Larry Grobel is a great journalist and wordsmith, and I was curious to know about how he does what he does. On that count, the book is a hit.
Where it misses is in trying to instruct. The midsection of the book covers several different types of interviews (for print, online, TV, etc.) but completely neglects covering what I consider to be some very important ground. Most celebrity interviewers, like myself, are not at the highest echelon – most of us will not get exclusive sit-down TV interviews for the Playboy Channel; will never spend weeks with Marlon Brando on his private island; or get five or six sessions with Barbra Striesand for a big magazine cover story. Grobel’s been there, done that. (But it’s nice to know that even Grobel has the same experience with brick-wall publicists; he doesn’t necessarily have Oscar winners banging his door down all the time.)
I have interviewed quite a few of the same big stars Grobel has – Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Meryl Streep – but my experience is quite different. I usually get about five minutes at a red carpet premiere, four minutes at a TV junket, or 20 minutes at an on-the-set press conference in which I must compete with other reporters for answers. It’s rather appalling that Grobel does not even mention press junkets, red carpet premieres, or set visits in his book – let alone e-mail interviews which are becoming more and more commonplace as the world goes online.
Grobel has the time to make an “art” of the interview – given the limitations of the situations, what the vast majority of reporters do is a quick caricature or a sketch. Still, there is a certain excitement and spontaneity to the randomness of a red carpet premiere, or having a chat at a press junket with young up and comers who aren’t so guarded around the press. As long as the interviewee can express themselves well in writing, even e-mail interviews can be cool. It’s too bad that Grobel doesn’t mention any of this.
Had I been looking for tips to break into the business of interviewing celebrities, I would have been pretty disappointed in The Art of the Interview. However, if you are looking for more of a memoir and are interested in the process of what an interviewer actually does, then The Art of the Interview is highly recommended. Grobel is an excellent writer, and he does a good job of seamlessly going from point A to point B.
