There's No Such Thing As A Howard Beal Moment: Michael Wolff on Power, Access, Hubris, and Writing Great Sentences
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum
Meghan Daum
4.7 • 855 Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2022
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Wolff is the author of ten books including, most recently, Too Famous, a collection of essays, and three best-selling books about the Trump presidency. Over the past twenty years he has been a regular columnist for New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, British GQ, The Guardian, and The Hollywood Reporter. He has won numerous awards in the U.S. and U.K., including two National Magazine Awards. He lives in New York City and has five children.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I took the money and could not write this book for quite a long time. |
| 0:10.9 | You know, really, probably it was six years, maybe even seven years of full time waking up |
| 0:19.1 | every day and starting on page one. |
| 0:23.4 | I guess the worst time in my life, it was nearly broke me. |
| 0:27.7 | Horrific. |
| 0:28.7 | And I just didn't know what to do. |
| 0:30.4 | And I felt the promising career that I had had just drifted away. |
| 0:39.2 | You know, suddenly I had no agents. |
| 0:41.3 | The publishers wanted the money back. |
| 0:43.7 | I was a defeated and forgotten person in my own mind in a way. |
| 0:49.4 | And I had a close friend, a college friend who had gone to Wall Street, you know, and made a ton of money |
| 0:58.6 | already. So, you know, this is sort of mid-80s, a ton of money. You know, and he had started his own, |
| 1:05.3 | you know, made this money and started his own firm and, you know, it was like, you know, amazing. And I remember he, |
| 1:13.6 | year six or seven, he kind of sat me down and said, you've become an embarrassment to everyone |
| 1:21.9 | who knows you have got to stop. And then he said, so just come downtown. |
| 1:29.3 | I'll give you an office and we'll do deals. |
| 1:33.1 | First, I had no idea what deals were. |
| 1:36.2 | And I didn't even quite know how to get downtown, a place I had never been. |
| 1:40.6 | But I said, okay, I am on board. |
| 1:43.0 | I will be there. |
| 1:49.0 | And, you know, and I hurried to get a, buy a suit and a briefcase. And suddenly I was on Wall Street. And it was the best time. |
| 1:59.1 | Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. I'm your host, Megan Down. And this is the first episode of |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Meghan Daum, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Meghan Daum and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

