Well, in features, and in writing especially, it's often the style of the writer comes in.

So you shouldn't really flatter yourself that they want to be your buddy. They don't. Generally. They want you for some reason or other, and you just have to fend that off all the time.

And the most important thing you can do is learn to edit yourself. And then go back and rewrite.

And so popular culture raises issues that are very important, actually, in the country I think. You get issues of the First Amendment rights and issues of drug use, issues of AIDS, and things like that all arise naturally out of pop culture.

Unless you're doing a feature piece, which is going to be longer, and you have more time to get into stuff.

Whomever you're going to interview, you have to be interested in what it is you want to know from them. You have to be interested in the subject.

You find the most important thing that really grabs you, and put it right up top. Don't bury the lead. Put it at the top. Best thing to do. Never go wrong that way. It's an immutable law of journalism. It just always works.