Joseph Lelyveld is former executive editor of The New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Before taking the stage at the Hammer Museum to discuss his controversial new book about the life of Ghandi, he answered a few questions in our Green Room.
Q. Where would we find you at 7 pm on an average weekday?
A. Home. Not watching the news.
Q. Who was the best boss you ever had and why?
A. A man named Jimmy Greenfield who was the foreign editor of The New York Times when I was a correspondent. What I liked about him was when he promised you something he could remember it two days later or even two years later. Most people in that kinds of position conveniently forget things they’ve said.
Q. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. As a child of about 13 or 14 I wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice because I liked the vacations.
Q. What are you scared of?
A. Injury or illness in my family.
Q. What is the last great novel you read?
A. Don Quixote.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. I wrote a book about my childhood; there weren’t too many fond memories. There are too many superlatives in these questions! A fond memory, though: as a teenager, I like hiking and canoeing a lot.
Q. What would you eat for your last meal?
A. Cream of Wheat. I don’t know. Am I about to be executed? I don’t think I’d be so hungry under those circumstances.
Q. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
A. Half a dozen different places. Maine, London, Los Angeles. I said a half dozen, but that may be too many. Bilbao impressed me once as a nice place that one could live.
To read more about the lecture Lelyveld gave, click here.
Photo by Aaron Salcido.