George Plimpton

My favorite monologue in the book is Kate Harrington's story of her relationship with Truman.

The New York Times published the guest list on the front page. The masks were a brilliant concept.

At the base of it was the urge, if you wanted to play football, to knock someone down, that was what the sport was all about, the will to win closely linked with contact.

It is also one of the pleasures of oral biography, in that the reader, rather than editor, is jury.

At the base of it was the urge if you wanted to play football to knock someone down that was what the sport was all about the will to win closely linked with contact.

He was interviewed in the early '60s by a young novelist, Pati Hill.

I remember being awed by it - the uniqueness and nicety of style - and I suspect I was a bit jealous because we were more or less of the same generation.