“If someone says I’m doing this out of faith, I say, Why don’t you do it out of conviction?” —Christopher Hitchens
One of his generation’s greatest public intellectuals, and perhaps its fiercest, Christopher Hitchens was a brilliant interview subject. This collection—which spans from his early prominence as a hero of the Left to his controversial support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward the end of his life—showcases Hitch’s trademark wit on subjects as diverse as his mistrust of the media, his love of literature, his dislike of the Clintons, and his condemnation of all things religious. Beginning with an introduction and tribute from his longtime friend Stephen Fry, this collection culminates in Hitchens’s final interview with Richard Dawkins, which shows a man as unafraid of death as he was of everything in life.
“He’s one of the most terrifying rhetoricians that the world has yet seen.” —Martin Amis
“His unworldly fluency never deserted him, his commitment was passionate, and he never deserted his trade. He was the consummate writer, the brilliant friend. In Walter Pater’s famous phrase, he burned ‘with this hard gem-like flame.’ Right to the end.” —Ian McEwan
“He was an intellectual with the instincts of a street brawler, never happier than when engaged in moral or political fisticuffs.” —Salman Rushdie
“There was nothing that Hitch liked to do more than talk —and all the better if talking meant arguing.” —Anna Wintour