Stricker: How did you become a writer?
Will: : I think writers like to write. So I’ve always enjoyed writing and I went through college and I went to graduate school and I got a Ph.D intending to do what my father did, which was to be a college professor, which I was briefly. Then I went to work on the senate staff in Washington and after three years of that I decided I’d rather write a column so I started a column.
Stricker: How many books have you written?
Will: : Eleven I think. Nine on politics and two on baseball.
Stricker: Which book that you’ve written is your favorite?
Will: That’s a tough one. The one that sold the best and that most people know is my first baseball book called Men at Work, The Craft of Baseball. That’s I think the best selling baseball book ever written. I also like the book of mine called Statecraft as Soulcraft. Those would be my two favorites.
Stricker: What was your favorite book when you were a kid?
Will: : A book by Garth Garreau called Batboy of the Giants. It was a true story about a young man who was a batboy for the New York Giants. This was before they moved to San Francisco in 1958.
Stricker: What is your favorite website?
Will: : My favorite website is dannyskidspage.com. Without question.
Stricker: Who is your favorite baseball player?
Will: Of all time? Ernie Banks. I grew up in Champaign, Illinois which is about 125 miles south of Chicago and I was a Cubs fan. He was the only good player on the team when I was growing up.
Stricker: What do you do for fun?
Will: I go to baseball games. And I read novels. Everybody should read for fun. That’s the only way you get smart.
Stricker: Who has been your most interesting interview?
Will: In baseball my most interesting interview was Tony Gwynn who I interviewed as the hitter in my book Men at Work. Otherwise I suppose my most interesting interview was with Ronald Reagan.
Stricker: How many Presidents have you met and who did you like best?
Will: Let’s see, I’ve met Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush the father and George Bush the son I guess that’s seven. And my favorite was Ronald Reagan.
Stricker: Where do you get your ideas for what to write about?
Will: Well the world irritates me twice a week. I write two columns a week for the newspapers and one every other week for Newsweek. That’s five columns every two weeks and I find that the world is so interesting and often so aggravating that I have no trouble finding what to write about.
Stricker: What president that you met didn’t you like?
Will: Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
Stricker: What one thing that you do makes you successful?
Will: I think its because I love what I’m doing. There are some jobs you just can’t do well unless you really love what you’re doing and I think writing is one of them because its hard work and you’re not going to do the hard work unless its fun. That and the fact that I read all the time. I hate to keep coming back to that but that’s the secret of success in life is to read. The world belongs to people that know things and the way you know things is by reading.
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