In seeking to be a good conversationalist one can learn much from the interviewing skill and questions employed by veteran broadcaster, Larry King.In an interview by Katie Couric marking King’s fifty years in broadcasting, Couric asked him whether he felt great pressure in interviewing influential people such as Nelson Mandela, George and Laura Bush, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
King said, “There is additional pressure because I feel an interview with such people is important. I know in cases like these that something could be said that could change human affairs or the course of history.”
“However,” he added, “It is still quite simple. It is a matter of asking the basic questions of ‘who’, ‘what’, when’, where’, ‘why’ and ‘how.’ The best things always come out of good conversations.
Larry King Live, Interview of Larry King by Katie Couric, CNN, May 13, 2007.