April 14, 2008
An interview with Tad Friend
MediaBistro's "So What Do You Do?" series occasionally snags interesting interview subjects, and this week's respondent is the New Yorker's Tad Friend. An excerpt:
How many people do you typically interview for a profile?
For a long piece, I probably have 60 to 100 conversations.
Are you serious? Wow. And a lot of that is just background -- people you're not even going to quote?
Yeah, a lot of it. I over-report so that I feel confident, when I sit down to write, that I know what I'm talking about. That confidence may be misplaced, of course, but I need to feel it. We have a bit of a luxury at The New Yorker in that you can take some time -- two to three months -- with certain kinds of stories and try to be authoritative.
How do you figure out who to talk to?
At the end of an interview, I always say, "Who else should I talk to?" And then they tell you two people and then those people tell you two people, and at a certain point everyone's telling you the same people you've already talked to and you think, "OK, I've kind of got it." Or everyone's telling you things you already know, which is comforting. You could probably write a profile that's three-quarters as good about two weeks in, but I like the feeling of knowing more, of giving myself more choices and collecting the little nuance-y details that encourage the reader to relax and trust you as a guide and companion. There is also the possibility that I'm just neurotic.
(Link via Emdashes)