Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Doctrine Man interrogates Tom about books, Homer Simpson, and the beard

"1.     Tom Ricks seems to be everywhere these days. Is there a limit to your energy? Funny, I don’t feel that way, on either count. I feel very out of it, remote from Washington. I spend most of the year in rural Maine. I live 35 miles from the nearest stoplight. To get to the ...

via Dana Moos/flickr
via Dana Moos/flickr
via Dana Moos/flickr

"1.     Tom Ricks seems to be everywhere these days. Is there a limit to your energy?

"1.     Tom Ricks seems to be everywhere these days. Is there a limit to your energy?

Funny, I don’t feel that way, on either count. I feel very out of it, remote from Washington. I spend most of the year in rural Maine. I live 35 miles from the nearest stoplight. To get to the post office, I walk through woods and past a pond, and often see blue herons, kingfishers, ducks, and deer, and sometimes a bald eagle.

And most definitely, I feel a limit to energy. I spend most of my day and evening either reading or writing, and try to stop writing when I feel my energy lagging.

2.     Aren’t you about due for a new book?

Nope. The one I am writing now is about Churchill, Orwell and the 20th century. I managed to pick two of the era’s most prolific writers. So it’s gonna take another coupla years.

3.     Describe your greatest challenge in writing a book.

Books are a lot like having kids. Each one is different, both in its joys and its sorrows. Once when I was bellyaching to my editor about how difficult the rewrite of one book was, he said, "Oh, every good book has at least one nervous breakdown in it." Good to keep in mind.

4.     We’re back in Iraq. Again. Do we really have a strategy?

No."

For the rest, go here.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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