Stuff
Romesh Ratnesar Revealed
About Romesh Ratnesar
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What is your birthdate?:6/11
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Previous occupations:I've been a journalist my whole adult life
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Favorite job:Being a foreign correspondent
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High school and/or college:High School: The College Preparatory School, Oakland, CA. College: Stanford
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Name of your favorite composer or music artist?:Keith Jarrett
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Favorite movie:"Michael Clayton"
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Favorite television show:SportsCenter
On Books and Writing
- Q. Who are your favorite authors?
- A. George Orwell Philip Roth Jhumpa Lahiri Michael Lewis Herman Melville Ian McEwan
- Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
- A. Light in August by William Faulkner Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell Martyrs' Day, by Michael Kelly Moneyball, by Michael Lewis Lenin's Tomb, by David Remnick
- Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
- A. Anything by Orwell
- Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
- A. Read carefully
- Q. How did you come to write Tear Down This Wall?
- A. I wanted to write about an event that I had lived through and which shaped my generation. I also have long had an interest in the Cold War and the factors and personalities involved with bringing it to an end. And I am fascinated by Presidential speeches and have admired a number of books that have focused on individual speeches, such as Garry Wills' "Lincoln at Gettysburg," Douglas Brinkley's "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc" and Thurston Clarke's "Ask Not." All of those things came together with "Tear Down this Wall."
