My job is to persuade people to toe the line and play within the laws of the game.
Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands.
In some future America, there could be a plausible Michael Bloomberg path to the Democratic nomination. I would love to read a column by a smart person actually attempting to persuade me of this, using evidence.
We're not going to persuade people in the developing world to go without, but neither can we afford a planet on which everyone lives like an American. Billions more people living in suburbs and driving SUVs to shopping malls is a recipe for planetary suicide. We can't even afford to continue that way of life ourselves.
I think if you're good and you can persuade people you're going to be able to do that role and ultimately the audience buys it, then it doesn't matter whether you were really a chimpanzee in disguise! You've done it.
I've never interviewed anyone where I set out to try to persuade them to reveal something. Instead, it's about creating a space that allows someone to be authentic without judgment on my part.
Most artists don't get paid for what they do, and they are lucky if they can persuade a friend to let them show something at a kid's birthday party.
Obviously, a power player in a criminal organization doesn't have to persuade anyone. He can just do what he wants.
Let one persuade many, and he becomes confirmed and convinced, and cares for no better evidence.
I work in a world of words - words that inspire, words that persuade and, increasingly, words that can send the message that it is acceptable to hate.
