TERRY GROSS: ...Of "The Power Broker." On one hand, you're trying to cut, like, this huge number of pages - I don't know exactly how many - but, at the same time, you were, you know, dealing with, like, commas and semicolons and sometimes having pretty heated disagreements, as far as I can tell, over whether some - you know, whether there should be a comma or a semicolon.
ROBERT GOTTLIEB: Yeah, sometimes, because not everyone sees punctuation the same way. So I feel, as an editor, it's my job to make the case that I need to make. And then it's his job to eventually agree or disagree. You know, I never cease explaining or telling young people who want to be editors, it's a service job. Our job is to serve the word, serve the author, serve the text. It's not our book. It's not my book. It's his book or her book. But it's a very gratifying job. And I love the editing process. I love it as an editor, and, since I've done a lot of writing myself, to my astonishment, I love being edited because it's the process that I like. I don't care whether I'm the editor or the editee. It's fun, and it's interesting to see how you can make something that you believe is good even better.
— Remembering acclaimed editor Robert Gottlieb, NPR’s “Fresh Air”