Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lawrence Grobel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Lawrence, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
When I was 15, I wrote an essay for a contest that the newspaper Newsday sponsored. I almost didn’t submit it because it was handwritten, not typed. When I won the contest, which included publication in the newspaper, an engraved watch, and a trip to Washington to meet President Kennedy and his brother, the Attorney-General Robert Kennedy, it gave me an incredible confidence boost. I knew then that I wanted to be a writer, and after graduating college, I began doing interviews for Newsday. The first was with Mae West, and I was very nervous, especially since she didn’t want me to use a tape recorder. But I managed to get it done, and once it was published, the editor asked me who else I’d like to interview? I said Linus Pauling. I was challenging myself, to see if I could have an in-depth conversation with the scientist who had won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and also the Nobel Peace Prize. I was way out of my league, but I prepared for weeks, reading everything I could, and when I met Pauling, I felt confident that I could hold up my end of the conversation. After that, I interviewed dozens of other high-profile people, like Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Warren Beatty, Ray Bradbury, and Henry Moore. Each time, I spent weeks preparing for them. After a few years, I began doing interviews for Playboy with some of the most iconic people in the world, like Barbra Streisand, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Saul Bellow, Robert De Niro, Henry Fonda, Luciano Pavarotti, James A. Michener, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Huston. I was always on edge because these interviews sometimes lasted weeks or even months. But I was always prepared, and that gave me confidence. Confidence is critical, for if they sense I’m well-prepared, they also know that I’ve taken them seriously, and if my questions can be challenging and interesting for them, then they can start to enjoy the process. Because of these interviews, I felt confident that I could write books, and with each successful book, my self-esteem grew. I’ve now written 32 books, and the process never changes. It begins with preparation, and that leads to self-confidence.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
In high school, I edited the newspaper; at UCLA, I edited the humor magazine; in the Peace Corps, I taught at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. I began writing professionally when I returned from Africa. I freelanced for newspapers like Newsday and the New York Times, and for magazines like True, Playboy, Reader’s Digest, Premiere, McCall’s, Redbook, and Rolling Stone. I also created and directed a M.F.A. program in Professional Writing for Antioch College, and taught for ten years in the English and Honors Departments at UCLA. I never stopped writing. My first book, Conversations with Capote, became a bestseller and received an award from P.EN. My next book, THE HUSTONS, was an 850-page biography of the Huston family (Walter, John, Angelica, Tony, and Danny). Other Conversation books followed, with Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James. A. Michener, Ava Gardner, and Robert Evans. Two books I wrote in 2004–The Art of the Interview, and Climbing Higher (with Montel Williams)– were named among the Best Books of the Year by Publisher’s Weekly. The books that followed have been novels (Catch a Fallen Star; Begin Again, Finnegan), short stories (The Narcissist; Stuck; and Schemers, Dreamers, Cheaters, Believers), memoirs (You Show Me Yours; Turquoise; You, Talking to Me; I Want You in My Movie; and HUSTLE: The Making of a Freelance Writer), and collections of my magazine work (ICONS; Signing In; Endangered Species; Above the Line). My book on Al Pacino was named the Best International book of the Year by the Syndicat Francais; and Turquoise was named the Best Memoir of 2023 by Peace Corps Worldwide. All my books are available on Amazon. I’ve recently completed cataloguing and boxing my archives, hoping to find an interested institution.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Confidence. You must believe in yourself.
2. Research & Preparation: If you’re not prepared, you won’t go far.
3. Make Rejection and Failure a motivation to succeed. Everyone gets rejected in life, It’s the ability to bounce back, to prove others wrong, to show you have a thick skin, that will help you move forward.
I’ve always believed that one can never give up if one has goals. That’s why I wrote my last book; HUSTLE: The Making of a Freelance Writer. It shows, by word and examples, that even something as tough as making a living by one’s wits can be done if you’re willing to accept the curves thrown at you.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I’ve written 7 screenplays, some based on my books, others original stories. I’m always hoping to find the right producer, the right agent, the right director who might see what I see in these scripts and help develop them.
Contact Info:
- Website: lawrencegrobel.com
- Instagram: larry grobel
- Facebook: larry grobel
- Linkedin: larry grobel
- Twitter: larry grobel
- Youtube: Lawrence Grobel
- Other: email: c[email protected]
Image Credits
Lawrence Grobel
