If you want to feel the full force that motivates the once high and mighty to pen their memoirs, consider the following dialogue from the 2006 play Frost/Nixon, by English playwright Peter Morgan. In Scene 15, David Frost receives a call from a slightly tipsy Richard Nixon to discuss the final session in a series of television interviews scheduled for the next day. Both men are counting on this media extravaganza to revive their failing reputations and public standing. The exchange goes like this:
Nixon: “If we reflect privately just for a moment … if we allow ourselves … a glimpse into that shadowy place we call our soul, isn’t that why we are here now? The two of us? Looking for a way back? Into the sun / into the limelight / back onto the winner’s podium?”
Frost: “You are. Except only one of us can win. And I shall be your fiercest adversary. I shall come at you with everything I’ve...
Lloyd Axworthy spent six years serving in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly and twenty-one in the Federal Parliament. In 2014, he retired as President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Winnipeg.
Advertisement
Advertisement