“Editing requires you to be always open, always responding. It is very important, for example, not to allow yourself to want the writer to write a certain kind of book. Sometimes that's hard.”

Robert Gottlieb is an American editor and literary critic. He spent decades shaping major publishing houses as editor-in-chief, including at Alfred A. Knopf and the New Press, and remains influential for his advocacy of literary nonfiction and social justice. His career spans six decades, marked by mentorship of writers and a commitment to public intellectualism.