Esquire The Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives [Hardcover]

Ryan D'Agostino (Author), David Granger (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2009

From Esquire’s popular “What I’ve Learned” column comes a stunning collection of candid interviews with 64 actors, directors, musicians, economists, politicians, and other leaders.

Every one of the impressive figures profiled here offers insights that reveal the humanity behind the famous face. Their words—often unguarded, open, and vulnerable—appear exactly as they were spoken, and the dramatic portraits accompanying each interview showcase photography’s brightest talents:  Brigitte Lacombe, Bruce Davidson, Peggy Sirota, and Nigel Parry, among others.  

The lessons these larger-than-life personalities convey are funny, inspirational, very down-to-earth—and always captivating.

The profiles include:

Robert Altman - George Carlin - George Clooney - Tony Curtis - Ray Charles - Johnny Depp - Snoop Dogg - Faye Dunaway - Clint Eastwood - Eminem - Michael J. Fox - Joe Frazier - John Kenneth Galbraith - Mikhail Gorbachev - Woody Harrelson - Dustin Hoffman - Jesse Jackson - Ted Kennedy - Elmore Leonard - Jerry Lewis - Arthur Miller - Keith Richards - Oliver Stone - Gore Vidal - Ted Williams - and many others!   

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ryan D'Agostino is Articles Editor at Esquire magazine and former Senior Editor at Money magazine. His writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times among others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Hearst; 1 edition (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588166465
• ISBN-13: 978-1588166463
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 9 x 11.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect to get in the mood for New Year's Resolutions, January 2, 2010

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Esquire The Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives (Hardcover)

This is the second in this series that I own and have read, I requested it as a Christmas present (and Santa Claus apparently got the message). It is a collection of one-page summaries, a distillation of the answers to questions posed by Esquire interviewers over several months to an assortment of rogues, heroes and villians. What results is the most compact set of uncommon wit, humor, comedy, one-liners, and good advice that short of a Richard Pryor comedy album, one is ever likely to find in one place.

It is amazing how deep, important and fresh the things are that these individuals all have to share.

In the last volume it was Rod Steiger who stole the show; this time it is Arthur Miller who had a many close calls with failure: "I could write about failure only because I could deal with it. Most of my work before "Death of a Salesman," 98 percent of it was a failure. By the time "Willie Loman" came along, I knew how he felt.

Five Stars

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Asim, December 28, 2009

By 

Asim (california, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Esquire The Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives (Hardcover)

If you are a fan of "What I've Learned" articles appearing every month on Esquire, then you will like these articles of selected 64 personalities giving their take on various situations they faced during their existence on this planet.

This book may not answer the eternal existential dilemma but it will give you a few pointers to go in the right direction.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great advice, great book, June 10, 2011

By 

Lee Henderson (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Esquire The Meaning of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives (Hardcover)

Maybe I just have a short attention span, but I really love books like this that you can read in bite-sized pieces. You know that the interviewers and editors spent tons of time whittling down the interviews to the most fascinating and memorable details, and it shows. (And I've actually used some of the advice in this book, and the other one that's like it.) Really good stuff. Recommended.