Word: em
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...EM: My purpose in writing the book? Well, just simply to tell a story -- which is all I've ever wanted to do in my life, is just to tell a story. What drew me to Theodore Roosevelt, and what drew me to Reagan is the fact that both had extraordinarily interesting life stories. And were both extraordinarily interesting characters. I did not want to write about Reagan for any political reasons, his politics bore me. I did want to make money, so that was certainly a consideration. But on the other hand, if I'd only been after money...
...EM: I remember saying to him once in a moment of frustration, "Mr. President, I just have great difficulty understanding some of the things you think and some of the things you do." He said, "But why? I'm an open book." "Yes," I said, "but your pages are all blank." He looked at me with his head on one side, generally puzzled that I found him puzzling...
...EM: Oh no, not at all. I knew the method was going to be very controversial, I knew that from the start, and I greatly enjoy the controversy. I think the art of biography does need shaking...
...EM: Well, yes, you're right, that's what I meant by [the above answer]. I think biography should take advantage of all these new communicative techniques we've got these days. The technique of the screenplay, sound effects, and computer techniques. Several chapters in Reagan's life were so cinematic that I've actually written them cinematically. Why not? It's the truthful way and the appropriate way to describe that they were episodes almost cinematic in themselves. He remembers them as cinema, so I write them as cinema...
...EM: Oh I hope so. Any art form is going to be a dying art form if experimentation doesn't continue. Some of the devices I've used are actually not new but they had been forgotten. For example, the technique of dialogue, of a dialogue chapter, is a Victorian form where two erudite men, say, would have a long conversation that would be written out in chapter form. There's a dialogue that Oscar Wilde wrote, for example, which discusses socialism. But the discussion is conveniently couched as two very articulate men talking. And it's a fascinating form...