"My tactic was really to beg the [interview] subjects to speak with me for a few hours. Of course, I never mentioned the ‘few hours’ part, and that surprised quite a few people. In some cases, I interviewed authors for up to ten to fifteen hours (over a stretch of time). I don’t think most of them knew what they were in for, as most interviews they particpate in are fairly short. But, in my defense, I will say that I did a tremendous amount of preparation for each interview, sometimes for up to 25 hours—so, in the end, I wasn’t wasting their time with stupid questions, like, ‘Hey! Where you from again?’"