pages. that s the only time the i felt like turning around and going home. chris: caro says he has one big rule when interviewing. your notebooks are filled with a notation [laughter] yeah. chris: what does that mean? shut up. [laughter] people have a desire, a need to fill in silences. if you could just make yourself shut up, often they ll tell you what you want to know. chris: then there s writing. caro remembers what a professor at princeton told him. you re never going to achieve what you want to achieve, mr. caro, unless you stop thinking with your fingers. i knew exactly what he meant. it was so easy for me to write. i didn t think things through. chris: which brings us back to his final book on lbj which is about a third written. caro took us into his office. this is the outline to have the rest of my last volume. from here to there to end of the book over there. chris: he writes several drafts
yet to vietnam. which is why, when he took a detour to write working, it caused well, heart burn. i want people to have some idea of what it is the i do, how it is to research this type of book. chris: caro fans may not be happy he took time from finishing the story of lbj, but it is fascinating to learn how he goes about his master work. caro says he learned about research from the his editor at newsday back in the 60s. this guy looks up at me, and he says, just remember, turn every page. never assume anything. turn every page. chris: it s advice he s followed researching lyndon johnson. you walk into the lbj presidential library, and when you look up at the documents section, what do you see? you see at that time 32 million documents. they had 40,000 boxes, each of these boxes holds about 800
in longhand, again, to slow himself down. after i ve done a number of drafts, i go to typewriter, and i do a lot of drafts on the typewriter. then it goes into this box, and the box goes to my typist. chris: when i talked with caro after his last lbj book, he said it would take three or four years to finish the final volume. that was seven years ago, and he s now 83. are you really going to vietnam? yes. chris: why? i feel unless i see it and really understand it, i can t make the reader see it. chris: if you should be unable for whatever reason to finish the book, have you made provisions for somebody else? no. i ve made provisions that nobody else can finish my book. nobody is going to publish anything with my name on it that i didn t write, not a word. chris: but caro is determined to finish the story of lyndon johnson down to last word.
pages. that s the only time the i felt like turning around and going home. chris: caro says he has one big rule when interviewing. your notebooks are filled with a notation [laughter] yeah. chris: what does that mean? shut up. [laughter] people have a desire, a need to fill in silences. if you could just make yourself shut up, often they ll tell you what you want to know. chris: then there s writing. caro remembers what a professor at princeton told him. you re never going to achieve what you want to achieve, mr. caro, unless you stop thinking with your fingers. i knew exactly what he meant. it was so easy for me to write. i didn t think things through. chris: which brings us back to his final book on lbj which is about a third written. caro took us into his office. this is the outline to have the rest of my last volume. from here to there to end of the book over there. chris: he writes several drafts
in longhand, again, to slow himself down. after i ve done a number of drafts, i go to typewriter, and i do a lot of drafts on the typewriter. then it goes into this box, and the box goes to my typist. chris: when i talked with caro after his last lbj book, he said it would take three or four years to finish the final volume. that was seven years ago, and he s now 83. are you really going to vietnam? yes. chris: why? i feel unless i see it and really understand it, i can t make the reader see it. chris: if you should be unable for whatever reason to finish the book, have you made provisions for somebody else? no. i ve made provisions that nobody else can finish my book. nobody is going to publish anything with my name on it that i didn t write, not a word. chris: but caro is determined to finish the story of lyndon