"CLARENCE THOMAS," SAYS GINNI THOMAS in a 2018 installment of her long-running Daily Caller interview series on the subject of leadership, "you're the best man walking the face of the earth." He chuckles. They sit a few feet apart in a small room near a clock, a bookshelf full of file folders, a plant in a wicker basket.
"It's an honor to interview you."
"Well, I'm really stressed out about this interview," he says, not smiling, then smiling, then laughing. Halfway through their time together, Clarence Thomas is talking about coming from a place where many of the adults around him were illiterate. He's talking about the deep pleasure he finds in old books, "like Christmas every day," the sense of gratitude for this knowledge denied his aunt, mother, grandfather.
"Now I know you think I'm a little different," he says. "And I am. But... you get to read Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson-many people kind of roll their eyes-"
Clarence, perhaps reading the lack of interest in Ginni's eyes, starts laughing.
"But just think of all the people," he says, motioning forward with his hand in a Clintonian gesture of explanation, "who were around him. Whether it was Edmund Burke or Adam Smith." He laughs again. "I mean, wouldn't you want to read Boswell's Life of Samuel he can hardly get the words out now, he's laughing so hard-"Johnson?"
Ginni laughs quietly.
"I'll put it on my list, Justice," she says with a little flick of the wrist and coy look into the distance.
"I'll lend you my copy," he says with a straight face.
"As long as you underline it for me."
He loses it.
"Okay," she says, ready to move on with her list of questions.
"What about," he says, leaning in, very serious now, "Wealth of Nations?"
"Just-" she says.
And he loses it again, a high-pitched laugh that tilts him forward in his chair.
"I have a life to live," she says, sighing.
この記事は New York magazine の June 19-July 2, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は New York magazine の June 19-July 2, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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