Showing results by author "Terry Gross" in All Categories

Songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen on his new volume of poetry, Book of Longing.

This audio is like an informal writing clinic, as you listen to these writers talk about their lives, experiences and, of course, their writing. While you are listening, Terry Gross draws out from these great writers the answers to your questions, just as the query begins to form in your own head.

Actors Morgan Freeman and Tim Roth on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Morgan Freeman is one of the stage and screen's most acclaimed actors for his ability to immerse himself in different roles. He originated the role of the chauffeur in the Broadway production of Driving Miss Daisy. Later he revived the role in the movie version, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Actor, director, screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton and British comedian Eddie Izzard on this edition of Fresh Air.

Singer, songwriter, musician, and arranger Barry Manilow is on this edition of Fresh Air.

Actress and model Isabella Rossellini on this archive edition of Fresh Air. Rosellini talks about her famous parents, actress Ingrid Bergman and filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, and her own career. She stars in the new film Left Luggage with Maximillian Schell. It opens this weekend. She has acted in numerous T-V shows, and her film credits include Blue Velvet, The Impostors, and Big Night. She is also the spokesmodel for Lancome cosmetics.

Gary Milhollin and Lutz Kleveman on this edition of Fresh Air. Gary Milhollin is director the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a non-profit research group in Washington, DC, that has been tracking the spread of weapons of mass destruction since 1986. He will talk about who currently has nuclear weapons, who is developing them, who has intelligence about them and who poses the biggest threat.

Actor Jared Harris and writer James Sallis on this edition of Fresh Air. The son of actor Richard Harris, Jared has acted in theater and on the big screen. He's appeared in movies like I Shot Andy Warhol, Happiness, Sunday, Smoke, and VH1's Two of Us in which he plays Beatle John Lennon. He talks to us today about his newest movie called Shadow Magic, which is set in China. Harris plays the man that brought the motion picture projector to China.

Former head of Ethics & Responsible Business Practices consulting services for Arthur Andersen, Barbara Ley Toffler and British filmmakers Dan Gordon and Nick Bonner on this edition of Fresh Air. Barbara Ley Toffler is the co-author of the new book, Final Accounting: Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Andersen. Toffler writes about life inside the firm. She left before it collapsed in the wake of the Enron scandal.

Percussionist Jonathan Haas and writer Jake Arnott on this edition of Fresh Air. Jonathan Haas is a solo timpani player who's garnered international praise. He plays all styles of music, from classical to jazz and rock. He's commissioned pieces for the timpani. He is the principal timpanist for the New York Chamber Symphony, the Aspen Chamber Orchestra, and the EOS Ensemble. He regularly performs with numerous other orchestras worldwide.

Journalist and author Walter Isaacson and Ted Conover, a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine on this edition of Fresh Air. Isaacson has written the new biography Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. Reviewer and fellow Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. writes of the book, "Both an absorbing narrative biography and an acute assessment of the man and his impact on his time and on posterity."

Writer Simon Winchester on this edition of Fresh Air>. He wrote the best seller The Professor and the Madman.

Near Easter Studies professor Bernard Lewis and Robert Jay Lifton on this edition of Fresh Air. Bernard Lewis, Ph.D is a Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.

Actor John Travolta on this edition of Fresh Air. Travolta plays an ex-Army Ranger turned DEA agent in the new film Basic. He became a star in the 1970s with the films Saturday Night Fever, and Grease.

Hear neurologist Oliver Sacks and rock critic Ken Tucker on this edition of Fresh Air. Oliver Sacks' new book is Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. It's a series of case histories that examine the relationship of music and the mind. Sacks has written eleven books; the most famous are Awakenings, which was made into a film starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

Religion scholar Bart D. Ehrman on this edition of Fresh Air. He's the Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor of Religious Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. His new book, Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, chronicles the period before Christianity as we know it came to be, when conflicting ideas about the religion were fighting for prominence in the second and third centuries.

Listen to songwriter/singer Neil Sedaka and book critic Maureen Corrigan, on this edition of Fresh Air. This year marks Neil Sedaka's 50th in the music business. He was part of the original creators of the "Brill building sound" of the late 50s and early 60s. His early songs "Stupid Cupid" and "Where the Boys Are" were hits by Connie Francis.

Writer and director Terry Gilliam and British actor Simon Russell Beale on this edition of Fresh Air. Terry Gilliam's new film is Lost in La Mancha. It's a documentary about Gilliam's failed attempt to adapt the story of Don Quixote to the screen. The film Gilliam was supposed to make was titled The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, starring Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis and Jean Rochefort.

Film director Barry Sonnenfeld on this edition of Fresh Air. His latest movie is Men in Black 2, the sequel to his film Men in Black. Both films star Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Sonnenfeld's other films include Wild Wild West, Get Shorty, and The Addams Family. Before directing, he worked as a cinematographer.

On this edition of Fresh Air, the focus is the work of underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar and the new film based on his life and work, American Splendor. Harvey has been described as "working-class Everyman," and "first-class curmudgeon."