[.ca] Steven Spielberg: Interviews (ISBN 157806113X)

Good stuff:
There's a lot of really good stuff in here. First, the interviews span some 25 years, so you get a sense how he's matured and yet how he's stayed the same. Second, Spielberg is very candid, so interviews with him tend to reveal more than many others. Third, there's just a lot of good stuff in here, some of which you may have heard and some not. For instance, I had never heard the story of how, as an awkward 12 year old, he and a mentally retarded boy were dead last in a school race and their peers cheered the retarded boy to beat young Spielberg. Spielberg describes how he knew he had to let the boy with without him realizing it and did just that. And then he describes how after the race, after the others carried the retarded boy on their shoulders, Spielberg was both devastatingly happy and sad. Or there's the anecdote about his encounter with Stanley Kubrick -- how the master was not as stand-offish as one might think, and yet how he sized up Spielberg with "his probing, questioning eyes, always looking at you to see if you're true or falso. To see what you're made of, to see what you have upstairs. His chess player's eyes. Real surgeon's eyes." There's lots of other examples I can bring but if you have any interest in Spielberg or movies just go out and get the book. It's a great read about a fascinating man whose own character arc and maturity as a movie-maker is the stuff great stories are made of.

GREAT BOOK BY THE MOST BRILLIANT FILMMAKER OF OUR TIMES!:
Reviewer: Betty Dravis "BettyDravis@sbcglobal.net, author of The Toonies Invade Silicon Valley & other novels" Steven Spielberg is undoubtedly the greatest movie director of our times. ALL his movies have been box-office hits. He is brilliant and dedicated to his craft! And people adore him! He's way cool ... That's why it's so exciting to read a book by him, describing the last 25 years of his life. Awesome material! Can't wait to see more of his movies! Many reviewers are saying that my TOONIES book would make a great movie ... a la Spielberg. I should be so lucky, but was lucky enough to meet and pose with Clint Eastwood many moons ago, so perhaps I'll get lucky again. Hint! Hint! With all his fame and fortune and he still remains a very "nice, dear, down-to-earth" man. More of the actors should emulate his example. Go, Steven!