You, Talking To Me

You, Talking to Me is an informative and entertaining look into the mind of a journalist whom Writer’s Digest called “legendary.” In concise lessons of only a few pages each, Grobel details what he’s learned from talking to 120 of the most fascinating people of our time, among them Gov. Jesse Ventura, Coach Bob Knight, kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, Nobel Prize winners Saul Bellow, Richard Feynman, and Linus Pauling, and he reveals stories about Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Dolly Parton, Kiefer Sutherland, James Spader, Robert De Niro, Henry Fonda, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Elmore Leonard, Goldie Hawn, Barbra Streisand and so many more. No other journalist has spent the time or has had the insight to such a wide variety of celebrated artists. Grobel’s lessons range from the serious (“Don’t Be Bullied,” “Anger Fuels Conversation,” “A Lie Can Be as Telling as a Truth”), to the humorous (“Shlock Can Be Art If You Believe It,” “If They Offer You a Drink, Don’t Make it Soft,” “If They Mistake You for Someone Else, Let it Ride,” “If They Offer to Lasso You, Go With It”), to the absurd (“When You Save Someone from Getting His Head Smashed, He’ll Respond with Kindness,” “Know How to Defuse a Potentially Threatening Situation, and Keep Enough Cash in Case You’re Thrown Out of the Car Onto a Deserted Highway in Ohio,” “Treat Your Plants to Baroque Music, and Stay Clear of Fluffers”). Over the years people have asked Grobel what he’s learned doing in-depth interviews for Playboy, Rolling Stone, Newsday, the N.Y. Times, and his books of conversations. This is his answer.