It is the subject of the conversation between mr. Buckley and his long time editor. Sam barnes. Will be happy to take your questions and sign copies of your book editing 22 of his books president and publisher and or editorinchief of doubleday and editor at large at random house. It should have been edited. [laughter] any lengthy introduction would be superfluous, supererogatory, unnecessary and also dumb. Perfectly good biographical sketch of him in the book. So violating the iron rule of those that introduce speakers by saying they need no introduction. I will go right to the interview what possessed you to do this book . What possessed me to do this book was committed to dash eight10 years saying we really ought to do a book that focuses on language. Not only on the use of language, but how it can be used, inviting introductions, obituaries or doing interviews. I was finally so bored on the subject. Okay. Go ahead and do it. I hope, certainly, i am happy with the result. It took an awful lot of time. What he came up with is a book really that sings the praise of language. In one of his autobiographies, churchill said i do not believe in corporal punishment. Any child that does not appreciate the language [laughter] i have a son about whom this is not a problem. I do think that the beauty of the language is something about with has universal enthusiasm. You say in the book that you write a lot, but you hate to write. I do not think that that is so odd, is it . People dig ditches. To that extent, and they are being paid, then that is good, isnt it . The writing is, for some people, excruciatingly painful. You are using your entire nervous apparatus. If you have something to write, you are burning up a lot of stuff around reading a nice book or essays by other people. I know george, now i wake up in the morning and i asked myself a question, is this a day in which i have to write a column and the answer is, yes, i wake up happy. Mine is exactly the opposite of that. I do not understand why people should be surprised that if you face something that is painful to deal, you should be surprised that you acquired doing it quickly. If you dont have to change diapers, ask me a more intelligent question. [laughter] what would you rather do than right . What would you be doing . Sleeping. Or reading. Writing is simply something that people do. It sounds like a finality. He likes to sit down and say i work hard and i wrote half of my book. That gives you retrospectively satisfaction. Do you suppose all painters like to paint . I feel good for having what do you think about that . I do not think all painters like to paint over time. What it is that appeals to them. I am actually terrible at it. I absolutely love it. It never occurred to me that maybe painters have some of the same sense of labor. The pains of it. That writers have. You tried. [laughter] retaining difficult words has put you in the position of having to defend yourself against this outrage. Explain yourself in less than 20 words. Well, i cannot do that. The review of my book by James Jackson kilpatrick. I think of him as a critic, a marvelous columnist. He has written a terrific book. He has this his war against his words. Singling out unusual words he had used in the course of a year. A terrific demonstration. I thought that he would just crawl up on his knees and surrender. What he says is let the purpose of journalism be communication. To the extent that one risks a lack of full communication, one is not discharging a responsibility. I said, if that was right in the recipe of what to take, actually certain there was no ambiguity. Nothing unusual. If you thought a newspaper, 20, 25 pages, in which people only to communicate and entertain and identify. Somehow that uses slightly unusual. That of what you are trying to communicate is lost with that. Anything written here, because that word exists, i did not understand what you were saying. A slightly unusual word. Or i will look it up. I made the point that every word that exists it exists with a felt need for it. In other words, did not serve the purpose. We thought it was ultimate with the dictionary. It must have been in the satisfaction of a curiosity. Kilpatrick by saying this monk, an unusual court, you do not say dont use in my presence. I try very hard not to use words, i hate to not use a word. That is just right for the situation. I think of that, too. This is useful. 28,000 words. 40 of the words used, he used only once. That is quite extraordinary. The only time it was absolutely just right. To the music language. Satisfies appetite which could be discouraged. The New York Times, the New York Post says, okay, you may not use any word outside of the 11,000 word that we authorize. I really think that there would be resentment by readers to be allowed in on the musical language. Is it theoretic . It is okay to select a word for a rhythm. Using the word ironic. The word peaceful. Using the word irony for the word peaceful because it has that extra syllable. I thought that that was okay. Understanding the rhythmic requirement and does not deny you the recorders senator mims. The reason i thought it was odd was it was an unusual word. An unusual word. Why dont you explain that to me it surprises some people when they learned that english was not your first language, or even your second. Well, i was brought up in odd circumstances. The oldest five and the youngest five, my father lived in mexico and by the time i was born living in paris and switzerland. He was bilingual and we spoke to each other in spanish. When i went to school at age i learned very little spanish. It was not until i was seven in london that i was exposed to english. Not that unusual at age six and seven. Never having spoken a word of english. I have sat with my students at yale, teaching composition and on my right is this lovely girl by whom i doing that trip to moscow and i thought about being lost in this market, in china, 20 words that are useful, a caviar. Two or three hours later we opened and they were full of awful the point that is necessary is she arrived at six, speaking not one word of english if he has 20, calling his friends and said i have two decide to continue in french or english. In america, the assumption is, the immediate language is the only language in this one is really at home. I do not think that that is true especially when one is very young. It is extremely easy to learn another language. When i think of conrad, i think it may be an advantage of having english as a second language. You have written about a cia. Did you grow up only to be novelist or cia agent . It has not been easy the last couple of days to defend the cia about 30 years ago, after we began publishing, we were defending the mission of the cia , but not defending the cia. We ran a paragraph, the assassination yesterday had all of the earmark of the cia operation. The cia has screwed up terribly. Twenty years ago the importance of intelligence. Blowing up the next flight to rome, it make sense to know who they are and who are they threatening. In terms of the cold war, it was an extremely important mission. It is also true that they have scandalized as a result of richard ames and this other guy. I served on the cia for about nine months. I was in mexico. I was a corporate agent. I think i could say i did not kill anybody. [laughter] after a while it became sort of tedious. Somebodys whose cover is so perfect that it is not reasonable to suspect that he has asked if cia. You might very well be doing that normally. It does not for the ad hoc assignment. Then you can effectively serve as a covid agent. Which i effectively was. Many books that have been reviewed many times. This book contains examples of your own reviewing. Lets say to review novels or somebody of the sort. Im not sure what your point is. I hope a rule about which i have been correct. I always appraise a book on what i think is good about it. It makes no difference at all who wrote it, what the political opinions are. What sanders is referring to as some people that review my books began by saying now, lets get down to this. When joe klein wrote his book, what a wonderful idea. What a terrific idea. Especially not easy to do. Someone comes in the room. Blah blah blah. How are you doing . It would be difficult my office, it is a barrier to be known for views and asking your book as it was written by someone who did not have reviews. I have suffered through this before. What is the most potent review you have ever written . In what sense . I think that that is easy. About a year ago. The chapel hill press. I have written books. You get one about every three weeks. I would need a couple pages of it. I cannot believe how terrific it was. A father and son. They organ originated the chronicles. Somehow dealt with that. In the 40 years that i had been associated. I had been twice asked. I would like to review this book coming back a day or two later and said, okay. We have had the time to review it. So i sat with 2700 word. [laughter] and then three weeks later i was informed that they would run all on the cover. The last cover review at the New York Times ran. This is what i am using. This is a book, a pedestrian, i came to the last sentence in that paragraph. And then a book which would be read 100 years from now. When they came back, this version of a couple of chambers, 100 years from now, it was reduced from a year or two. [laughter] we thought that it was kind of exaggerated. It was my responsibility. Okay. Another change was a little kitten on the move that had been given to the kid. That became his primary companion. Came up to this boy. When i was writing my journal, he said, what are you doing . I said i am writing in my journal. Well, am i in it . Well you are in it, you wont be in it if [laughter] you wont be in it you misbehave [laughter] taking it out. We dont pass off the New York Times, i was told. [laughter] im not being too wordy am i . No, you are fine. I think it would be better if we brought the audience and at this point. I got to hear your questions. I had a problem with that book. It struck me, michael doing quite well, attempting to customize a position. He ended up sort of composing his own which was beautiful in design. Reading that book, that is a position on this or that political synthesis. However it was inside the paragraphs, he did not come up with a communicable and for that, today when the book was published, deciding that three people in this room, the position. [inaudible] one of the things that i admire is your ability to carry a conclusion whereas when it starts to get scary or bigger than i can handle, we pull back. How do you pledge through that barrier . Well, i try not to. Repeat the question. She advisors his ability to carry a thought through to a conclusion. Sometimes going beyond that to the point where it is almost scary. How do you manage this problem . Scarier. Because it tells you about the accomplishments of that behavior in the book, doing the same every couple of years, using the oldest sister, she was always prepared for the combat. [laughter] at one point a death situation, a young faculty member and he saw her fishing around something that had meet on it, because it was a friday, why dont you eat meat on friday . Because i will go to hell. I thought he believed in the assumption. Not only it happened the earth was this way. [laughter] that is wonderful. The consequences of the disciplines. To answer your question, the consequences sometimes scary. Yes. Absolutely. Not scarier than the fact you run certain risk. If you cross the road with traffic you run certain risks. If you believe in gods word, you run certain risks. Remember, i did not make this up action that the models take with it, if you aim at the consequences, it must remain not spoken. It should not surprise you. What do you think of the level of discourse like the recent president ial campaign . Not saying anything as far as i can tell. Well, what fascinates me about modern politics, everyone runs into saying how awful they are. I thought it was terrific. Who are they talking to . Not my neighbor, not your neighbor. Obviously, some machine is turning out the type of listener who wants to hear it this way. You tune in and get exactly that pitch. When you find it, it becomes disappointing for the people. The action with that position is multiple people around. I dont know if that is true. The average american is a little bit above average. I like that. Progressively. You regret the level of discourse. [inaudible] yes, maam. What do you think about brown green as a novelist . What do you think of the personality . Do you like green . What was the second part of the question . The personality and all of that. I never met him. I am sort of glad i did not. I do not think he was a huge man to like. I almost went out of my way for the same reasons. A great angle of passion, energy , sort of somebody said what is the single english language which you most dislike which you entitled american. During his sort of celebrated capitalism, he had, he had the interesting permission in his aesthetic commitments of, on the one hand, a devotion to the Catholic Church and kind of a need okay, if i understand gods language, and dispose, however irregularly to abide by them, i will make up for it by defending every other social protocol. I think he did that. He was a hard man to live with. The New York Times, a book written during the war in which he forgot about. He rediscovered it 10 or 15 years later. It was not a significant book of his. He wrote some great, great books you would like saying that. [inaudible] doing your job. Mostly, i think guided by, a presumption, like i said, i had a wonderful time yesterday. [laughter] i got my mercedes yesterday directly from the factory. [laughter] these people are affected to the pronunciation of the word which prolongs primarily. It itself is an act out of ignorance or indifference. An offense, a girl that i fell in love with, she was eight and i was seven. [laughter] she told me she just came back and visited london. Since she was only eight people who mangle the pronunciation in that sense or as i say other as indifferent, the best way to handle it. Shakespeare . No. Churchill was such a theatrical person. I heard this speech that he gave to north africans to announce that the americans had landed there. The orders to the british and americans to repeat that was a minute long. [speaking in native tongue] some percentage of people later he was invited to be dressed out given his comprehensive way for a challenge. This was intentional. We understand this to be a global enterprise. Far more than the speech for marvelous mandarin friend. [laughter] the churchill idea to the extreme by drinking two lines. French wines. Destroying the whole country. Yes, maam. A book that you are just dying to review. [laughter] there is not an ebook that i am dying to review. Women writers are so triumphantly successful that i cannot think of any woman whose book i would not want to review because it was written by a woman. Sam was talking earlier today about a womans writer whose book he was editing. I want to talk to you about Elizabeth Spencer he was writing a memoir. Quite wonderful. I would take a few times. I will be back in the morning. [laughter] gentlemen in the back. [applause] very popular with the republicans. He was a very eloquent and decisive member of the republican left. He became a democrat which i urged him to do four years earlier. Kind of a machine of the bright. The conservative alternative view of the municipal ought to be spoken by somebody. He was inconceivable that i would win. Sometimes having gotten on. A view that he was dangerously close to being successful. [laughter] if i have iran again my motto would be voting by invitation only. [laughter] totally immortal when somebody said, what would you do if you win . Demand a recount. [laughter] my campaign manager. [laughter] questions. Oh, sorry. [inaudible] that defines the word genius. I would not define it attempting anything novel. I use the word as somebody with extraordinary gifts. I know to say you mustnt use the word except maybe three times in the century. A genius. That does not make everyone a genius. I understand that. If you are more generous, you can say, well, okay, you are not shakespeare, but i will call you a genius because of the similarity of your talents. In a way, i think that norman is a genius. I will say with words he is a genius. [inaudible] comment on the genesis. I did not see it. I am sorry. I have a sense that he is so in the vector of his book. Dissipate all of that to christianity. I understand the impulse, but if you applied it to music or to color or to shades of color and also all poetry, the reason some people is they find a similarity which makes it, super ordinate that. I am that way. I am a catholic. It does not mean you want to make other people uncomfortable, but it is to resist such effort to insist there really are no differences. Much more amicable and the differences which is what im trying to do. About which i desire zero curiosity. [inaudible] are we dismissed . I think so. Thank you all for coming. [applause] [inaudible] we will exit towards the back. You are watching book tv on cspan2. Television for serious readers. Tonight we are spending the evening with the late author and columnist William F Buckley junior. A founder of the National Review magazine and he also had a long running newspaper column. Up next from 1997, mr. Buckley reflected on his faith in his autobiography near my god. [inaudible conversations] could you please be seated