from the Paris Review

Sam, knowing of your love for Paris, I thought you might enjoy this piece, an interview with Ralph Ellison:

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5053/the-art-of-fiction-no-8-ralph-ellison

Worcester,

Thanks for sharing that. The interview resonates on several levels aside from the fact that The Paris Review is a Parisian institution.

The title, Invisible Man, would seem to be the term Bill Russell used to describe one of his "Russell Rules"—in fact, my favorite of all his rules. Bill's notion that the threat of an action may often be at least as effective as the action itself seems applicable to so many areas in life. I'd love to hear a discussion between Ellison and Bill.

You reminded me that I had moved away from The Paris Review since the death of a co-founder, George Plimpton, about a decade ago. I knew George. One of his family's estates was about half a mile from where I lived in the sixties, and a group of us from the "hood" were part of a committee formed by the Plimpton family to help decide what would become of the property. It was George's borrowed car that he, Havlicek and I raced all over the L.A. Forum parking lot to find—just steps ahead of an adoring crowd of Havlicek fans—after the "Balloon Game." (George only had a vague idea of what the car looked like.)

Also, Ellison's mention of Malraux takes me back to one of our many, many amazing Paris moments. At the time, Sally had searched in vain—from the Bible to books of quotes—for a fitting epitaph for her recently deceased mother's grave marker. We were riding around the Place de la Concorde when she spotted a Malraux quote (in French) printed in an ad on the side of a bus. Loosely translated, it read something like, "Ideas are not for thinking but for living." Soon, that sentence adorned her mother's grave marker.

Thanks again for making the interview available.

Sam