More Time "On Her Trail"

You use the term “Mommy Dearest” when talking about her. That’s pretty harsh.

Well, it’s in context. The personal, non-historical side of this book is about my relationship with her, which had a rough patch that happened to coincide with the release of that movie. I write about our hardest moments for 40 pages or so; the history and her life and our reconciliation take up the remaining three hundred.

How has writing this book changed the way you think about your own career?


I’m more conscious of the tradeoffs between what the public or Washington elites think is important and what is important.