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ambassador I don't really read
biographies and autobiographies because
I have this kind of slightly pompous
view which is that it's a kind of
inefficient way of collecting facts and
so reading your book was kind of unusual
for me and and what Ramona think was
this peculiar thing now which is that on
the one hand I like defer to you
enormous Lea and I kinda I wish I read
this book when I was 20 I might have
made something for myself or you know
you're a completely inspirational figure
so I'm kind of down here looking up at
you on the other hand I know so much
more about you than you know about me so
you know I've got the upper hand as well
already because the book is full of you
know this this stuff why did you want to
write it and why did you choose to write
it in such a kind of open way I mean you
know not just this but there's a whole
section the book about how challenging
you found relationships before you met
with our good friend Kass something good
RS a friend so why did you decide to
share all that stuff it's the right
question I mean I don't know that this
book would look this way or have taken
this form if for example Secretary
Clinton had been elected president you
know I wrote this book in the shadow of
current events shall we say generously
and I think that we're at a moment where
we're not listening to one another all
that well where we have our each of us
including me we have our fixed positions
I and and now very much believed that
had I written something that was sort of
explaining why I think my worldview is
preferable to you know shunning
diversity and shunning allies and
shunning values and shunning human
rights you know I would have been
writing that for people who agree with
me already and and maybe that's in the
end who'll read this book as well but to
tell just a good story I'm originally
Irish and and there were two sort of
dimensions of being Irish that were at
war in me as I was writing one was like
you can't get a word in edgewise at the
dinner table if you can't tell a good
story and you lose the attention of even
your parents if you trail off or if you
don't get your punch
just so and and so that was sort of the
inner from Ireland originally and and
you know I felt compelled to try to tell
a story that zoomed and that people
would want to be along for the ride on
but there's also a saying that you know
Irish people have trouble using the
first person even in therapy and and I
definitely found the I initially just
extremely presumptuous to write a memoir
you know especially one that went back
to my dublin childhood that went back to
being a war correspondent it was one
thing initially when i began working on
it i thought i'll write in the first
person because that's i'll tell a better
story that way i'll overcome that
barrier but i'll only do so in a way
that's kind of as it relates to barack
obama because because brock obama's who
people's interest who people are mainly
interested in but then i realized you
don't actually care about the character
of samantha if you don't know why she
believes what she believes or what drew
her to this person this historic figure
in the first place and so the upshot was
in the end i felt I needed to go more
personal to make the character that
happens to be me more relatable and
particularly you know you mentioned yes
I talk about my failed romantic journey
you know prior to meeting casts I talked
about IVF and fertility I've given you
the one of the most graphic scenes of
the book here but beyond that I talk
about my doubts along the way and that
as I began to write came to feel like
one of the most important dimensions
because what's happened is since I had
the privilege of representing the United
States on the world stage and
representing again a figure like Barack
Obama I I have found myself become less
relatable to look to young people like
in other words they I might say here's
an idea for you know how how one might
go about progressing in the next phase
on LGBT rights and I see my students
look at me thinking yeah well that's
easy for you to say you're the former UN
Ambassador you know you can get a New
York Times op-ed published like what do
I what's my role in all of this and so
by going back to the beginning and by
being very open about me asking
myself those questions pretty much at
every stage I mean even Barack Obama is
asking himself has asked himself those
questions of what can one person do I
think that's where people are right now
and so meeting people where they are in
a place where they are activated a bit
horrified not sure whether anything that
either an individual or their set of
friends can do can make a dent in what
ails us that's been the story through
human history but most government
memoirs don't open up the inside I was
saying that actually comes from a a
Alcoholics Anonymous which is never
compare your insights to someone else's
outsides and so what I tried to do in
the book is put the insides out there so
that people who are asking themselves
everyday am I going to activate or am I
going to change the channel and watch
you know something other than Briggs
adjust watch sport or you know just
listen to my music I want them to know
that that you're not alone and that we
have we do have a collective action
problem if everybody gets paralyzed by
their smallness we'll be where we are
and worse with time and so that that was
the the enterprise and and so far at
least as it relates to the young people
who I've engaged on the book I think it
has achieved that purpose of rendering
the larger story of how to make how to
make an effort to try to make a
difference
relatable you know and and and something
that people feel that they too can do
that you don't have to be you an
ambassador to do your thing
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