When I started teaching, I would get miffed if a student asked me to write him or her a recommendation for law school - I'd feel like that's not what we were doing in the course. But now I see that person as someone who might be gainfully employed. I bring in a lot of people to speak to my classes, and I've gotten to the point where I've expanded the type of guests I invite to include people both inside and outside of the traditional publishing world.

When I started teaching, I would get miffed if a student asked me to write him or her a recommendation for law school - I'd feel like that's not what we were doing in the course. But now I see that person as someone who might be gainfully employed. I bring in a lot of people to speak to my classes, and I've gotten to the point where I've expanded the type of guests I invite to include people both inside and outside of the traditional publishing world.

Doing an interview you're going to have certain things you want to get at, but you're better off if you play to people's strengths a bit. You're also assessing how it's going and adjusting as needed. Does your subject seem up for it, willing to do it, and is he or she enjoying the interview? Or do they need to be coaxed, or reassured, or whatever they might need from you? Like writing, interviewing is a process that you keep learning, and you're always trying to get better and better.

In Othello, Othello kills Desdemona, but no one reads that play as a model for their own behavior. In Lou Reed's case, you're listening to a song, and in my case you're reading about a life. Like Lou, I trust my audience to make their own moral determinations.

It can be nerve wracking if you walk into the interview and you're not sure what to expect.

If a musician cares about what he or she is doing, and you show up and care, you can go some place. That will never change. There are a number of ways to approach this, and my favorite is the way we're doing it now - just talking.

I'd say the vast majority of my interview experiences have been pleasant, better than pleasant. But sometimes there will be people who will size you up. There can be that "rock star" thing where they think it's cool to pull back.