After [Bill Shawn] was fired, I was going to the YMHA [Young Men's Hebrew Association] on the Upper East Side to do a talk on free speech.I went into a coffee shop to get a piece of pie and a coffee, and I was reading a paper and I hear a voice. And it was -it was not a voice I was familiar with, but I looked across the table and I saw Lilian Ross.And sitting next to her was William Shawn - no tie, needed a shave. His voice was kind of coarse and rather loud. He wasn't drunk, but I was just stunned.
Nat HentoffThat [race] is still part of what [Barack Obama] is riding on. Except that, too, is diminishing.
Nat HentoffIn fact, we have never had more invasions of privacy than we have now [with Barack Obama].
Nat Hentoff[Barack Obama's ] only principle is his own aggrandizement. This is a very dangerous mindset for a president to have.
Nat HentoffInside that quietude there was the firmest of wills. [Bill Shawn] knew exactly what he wanted to do.
Nat HentoffI was less angry at [Carl] Armstrong, though I was angry at the people who came to his trial: Dan Ellsberg, who ordinarily I respected a lot; Philip Berrigan; the guy who teaches at Princeton still - I can't remember his name. And they were saying - well, they were saying, really, what Arthur Koestler had people saying on "Darkness at Noon." The means were unfortunate and, sadly, someone died, but the end is what is important and this was a great symbolic - something or other - sign against the war in Vietnam.
Nat Hentoff