Interviews

[davemarc]

As I've mentioned in the past, written interviews are common--as shocking or
scandalous as
that might seem.

A section of Michael Schumacher's book Creative Conversations: The Writer's
Complete Guide to Conducting Interviews (Writer's Digest Books, 1990) is
devoted to the subject of written interviews. Here's an excerpt:

"George Plimpton, who has conducted and published a number of written
interviews with authors in his Paris Review Interviews series, is satisfied
with using this format in his publication.

"'Some people don't feel that they're very good talking to machines or being
interviewed by reporters,' he explalins. 'It's interesting: very often, what
you say seems very fraught with meaning and intelligence, but it isn't that
way on the printed page. The idea (for Paris Review interviews) is to get
these people to talk about their writing, and it doesn't make much
difference to us whether the interview is typed out or spoken.'"

d.