“Before interviewing Gamelin I knew that I would have to document myself on his views, his past, and enough of his technical background and jargon to make him feel that I knew what he was talking about. The preparation is the same whether you are going to interview a diplomat, a jockey, or an ichthyologist. From the man’s past you learn what questions are likely to stimulate a response; after he gets going you say just enough to let him know you appreciate what he is saying and to make him want to talk more. Everybody with any sense talks a kind of shorthand; if you make a man stop to explain everything he will soon quit on you, like a horse that you alternately spur and curb. It is all in one of Sam Langford’s principles of prize fighting: ‘Make him lead.’ Only instead of countering to your subject’s chin you keep him leading. Once I asked Sam what he did when the other man wouldn’t lead, and he said, ‘I run him out of the ring.’ This is a recourse not open to the interviewer.”
A.J. Liebling, The Road Back to Paris