ALL I DID WAS ASK -- Terry Gross

ALL I DID WAS ASK: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists
Hyperion -- hc
New York -- ©2004 -- 353pp
ISBN: 1-4013-0010-3


Public Radio's host of Fresh Air, Terry Gross, interviews a variety of guests. Included here are some of her more memorable interviews with artists.

"Don't Do It" -- Nicolas Cage
"Like a Skinny Boxer" -- Chris Rock
"Being Square" -- John Updike
"A Man's Voice" -- Johnny Cash
"Lift Everyting Up" -- Charlie Haden
"Erotic Cheese and Crackers" -- Mary Karr
"A New Gift" -- Andre Dubus and Andre Dubus III
"The Craft Itself" -- Uta Hagen
"Use the Disadvantage" -- Michael Caine
"Right in the Gut" -- Mickey Spillane
"You Will Not Find the Word 'Lesbian'" -- Ann Bannon
"We All Die" -- Walter Mosley
"A Family Courtesy" -- Mario Puzo
"Make Sense of It Later" -- George Clinton
"Bootzilla Twenty-seven Hours a Day" -- Bootsy Collins
"Dissonance" -- Nick Hornby
"In the Junkyards" -- Grandmaster Flash
"Alive in a Coffin" -- Paul Schrader
"A Difficult Place to Grow Up" -- Jodi Foster
"I Never Told Jokes" -- Albert Brooks
"Beauty Gone Berserk" -- Divine
"Kissing and Licking Boots" -- Mary Woronov
"To Iron a Shirt" -- Joyce Johnson
"So What?" -- Larry Rivers
"Not to Think" -- Sonny Rollins
"Send the Salami" -- Hal David
"Like Raw Meat" -- Isabella Rossellini
"A Little Out of Whack" -- Dennis Hopper
"The Way People Look" -- Chuck Close
"It Gets Harder" -- Frank Stella
"Mom, Dad, I Want to Be a Tap Dancer" -- Conan O'Brien
"Nothing Else Would Matter" -- Eric Clapton
"A Large Feminine Side" -- Steven Tyler and Joe Perry
"Too Much for You to Take" -- Gene Simmons
"Dramatic Beats" -- Samuel L. Jackson
"Stop Acting" -- Dustin Hoffman
"In That Hurricane" -- James Baldwin
"A Place of Protection" -- Carol Shields
"A Fraudulent Angel" -- Maurice Sendak
acknowledgements

#####

What a fantastic collection.

I listen to Public Radio. I'm not addicted to it, I contribute financially only occassionally, but I do listen if I'm in the car. When I happen to be listening and Terry Gross' 'Fresh Aire' comes on, I am usually interested. Now that I have had the chance to read through these interviews, I can understand why. Terry Gross asks intelligent questions.

Not a lot of inteviewers ask intelligent questions. Usually it's only leading questions about a new movie or a new book of or a new political campaign. Gross asks questions that we all want to ask.

Perhaps it's because this collection is with people who are artists (musicians, actors, writers, etc) -- people with whom I am familiar, interested, and can relate -- but I truly enjoyed the insight offered in these brief interviews.

Some of those that I enjoyed surprised me. I never would have expected to enjoy the Steven Tyler interview -- especially considering how blunt he was regarding his drug use -- but I did enjoy it.

Nicolas Cage is not one of my more favored actors, but I enjoyed his interview as well. In fact, hardly a bad one in the bunch.

Highly recommended.