All I Did Was Ask : Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists

From Publishers Weekly
Conducting a good interview requires exhaustive research, good timing, the ability to steer the interview back on course when it meanders, a knack for close listening and thinking about the next question, flexibility and editing skills. Gross, the polite and generous host of NPR's Fresh Air, is a pro, and here she collects some of her favorite interviews with people in the arts. The result is a wide-ranging and entertaining look into the creative process. With a few exceptions, the interviews are from the show's national broadcast debut year in 1987, but they never seem dated, as many of the guests are still active or well known, and the topics are timeless. Whether she's asking Johnny Cash about the difference between a singer and a song stylist, discussing the role of class in British actor Michael Caine's life or examining the eternal intricacies of the human face with Chuck Close, Gross remains sensitive, engaged and informed. The two notable exceptions are her interviews with cable opinion-slinger Bill O'Reilly and Kiss front man Gene Simmons, whose pugnacity and sexism, respectively, unseat the usually collected host and challenge her to summon interview skills she rarely exercises. Overall, however, this is an often funny and completely fascinating anthology. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In the first print collection of her justifiably famous interviews, Gross, host of the exceedingly popular National Public Radio interview program Fresh Air, admits to being nervous before every recording session. She also reveals the enormous amount of prep work involved. Writing with the directness and insight that make her such a magnet for listeners, Gross takes readers behind the scenes of her Philadelphia-based Peabody Award-winning program. She has wisely chosen to focus strictly on people in the arts, presenting 39 judiciously selected interviews that span the last two decades, conversations that, no matter the date, are, indeed, fresh, probing, and compelling. The book will prove newly revelatory to listeners (radio broadcasts are, after all, ephemeral), and engage everyone interested in how artists view their lives. Gross is at once extremely well informed and darn near guileless in her willingness to pose personal questions. She asks Chris Rock, for instance, if being skinny influenced his work (absolutely), gets Sonny Rollins to talk about drugs, and elicits many reminiscences about loving mothers. Wonderfully eclectic, she extracts intriguing disclosures from Johnny Cash, Grandmaster Flash, Nick Hornby, Jodie Foster, James Baldwin, John Updike, painters Chuck Close and Frank Stella, thoughtful Divine, and Kiss's absurdly crass Gene Simmons. It's a boon to have these priceless exchanges preserved in print, along with Gross' candid commentary. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Los Angeles Times
"If interviewing people is like picking locks, Terry Gross . . . holds a master key."

Kirkus Reviews
"Almost all of [Gross's interviewees] come up with some remarkable observation, from the piquant to the extraordinary."

Book Description
A fascinating collection of revealing and entertaining interviews by the award-winning host of National Public Radio's premier interview program Fresh Air. Over the last twenty years, Terry Gross has interviewed many of our most celebrated writers, actors, musicians, comics, and visual artists. Her show, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, a weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues produced by WHYY in Philadelphia, is one of National Public Radio's most popular programs. More than four million people tune in to the show, which is broadcast on over 400 NPR stations across the country. Gross is known for her thoughtful, probing interviewing style. In her trusted company, even the most reticent guest relaxes and opens up. But Gross doesn't shy away from controversy, and her questions can be tough -- too tough, apparently, for Bill O'Reilly, who abruptly terminated his conversation with her. Her interview with Gene Simmons of Kiss, which is included in the book, prompted Entertainment Weekly to name Simmons its male "Crackpot of the Year." For All I Did Was Ask, Gross has selected more than three dozen of her best interviews -- ones of lasting relevance that are as lively on the page as they were on the air. Each is preceded by a personal introduction in which she reveals why a particular guest was on the show and the thinking behind some of her questions. And in an introductory chapter, the normally self-effacing Gross does something you're unlikely ever to hear her do on Fresh Air -- she discusses her approach to interviewing, revealing a thing or two about herself in the bargain. The collection focuses on luminaries from the art and entertainment world, including actors, comedians, writers, visual artists, and musicians, such as: --Conan O'Brien
--Chris Rock
--Michael Caine
--Dennis Hopper
--Dustin Hoffman
--Jodie Foster
--John Updike
--Mary Karr
--Mario Puzo
--Nick Hornby
--Chuck Close
--Eric Clapton
--George Clinton
--Sonny Rollins
--Samuel L. Jackson
--Johnny Cash
--Isabella Rossellini
--Divine
--Uta Hagen
--Carol Shields

About the Author
Terry Gross started out in public radio in 1973 at WBFO in Buffalo. Soon after, she became producer and host of Fresh Air, then a live, daily show broadcast locally, at WHYY in Philadelphia in 1975. A weekly, half-hour edition of the show premiered nationally in 1985 and soon won an International Radio Festival of New York Gold Medal and a prestigious Ohio State Award. Fresh Air debuted nationally in its current hour-long version in 1987, and won the Peabody Award in 1994 for its "probing questions, revelatory interviews and unusual insights." Terry Gross is a graduate of the State University of Buffalo and she lives in Philadelphia.

Excerpted from All I Did Was Ask : Interviews from "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" by Terry Gross. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"You may be wondering what the point is of reading interviews that were meant to be listened to. I've asked myself that. But in going through transcripts in preparation for this book, I was pleasantly surprised that so many of the interviews I remembered as having been good radio also made for enjoyable reading. In reading the ones gathered here -- I probably shouldn't admit this--I've learned things from them that went right by me in the studio." --from the Introduction


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Fans of National Public Radio's Fresh Air with Terry Gross are in for a treat. For the first time, listeners can read transcripts from the popular talk show, chosen by the Peabody Award-winning host herself. The compilation begins with an informative introduction from Gross, who provides a behind-the-scenes look into the production of the program. She also reveals insights into her interviewing process and her continuing interest in the arts throughout her 25-year career with Fresh Air. The eclectic and sometimes confrontational interviews are edited for readability and are prefaced with background information about the guests, who range from John Updike to Johnny Cash to Jodie Foster. A fun read; for large public libraries and academic libraries with communications collections. Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.


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