THC: Was there ever any moment when you were with Reagan when you thought "This is Ronald Reagan."?

EM: Yes, there was actually. And you know I don't think I write about it in the book. It was in August of 1988, when I went up to his ranch to spend the afternoon as he chopped trees and pruned the landscape--what he loved to do. And he was in these jeans, work clothes, and he was working with buzz saws and tree hooks with two guys, ranch hands. The President and these two guys communicated entirely in grunts. And I realized that this is the real Ronald Reagan here, a hard, quiet, taciturn man's man, working with his body. In the current Talk Magazine there's an article by me talking about Reagan chopping down trees and this personal force of his, and there's a photograph of us at the ranch that particular day I'm telling you about, and he's holding a buzz-saw, and my hand is on his shoulder saying goodbye. That's when I saw the real, real Ronald Reagan.

THC: What's next? Are you going to finish Theodore Roosevelt?

EM: I sure am. I've already got the last line of the third volume written in my head. There in the distance like those palm trees at the far end of the Sahara, and I'm floggin' my camel!