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Oct 02, 2025, 06:28AM

I Read One of Them

A 2017 TIME interview with writer/editor Sir Harold Evans vs. a 2004 Newsweek interview with author Madeleine L'Engle.

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Sir Harold Evans: We’re now in a situation of anarchic disorder.

Madeleine L'Engle: Oh, yes. I expected it to be bad, and it is.

Evans: It’s somebody who stumbles over a neck but misses the body lying on the floor.

L'Engle: Narrow-mindedness.

Evans: It’s absolutely useless for argument.

•••

L'Engle: Faith is best expressed in story.

Evans: Writing that is deliberately designed to deceive–insurance policies, political statements.

L'Engle: Oh no, you do, because it's truth, not fact, and you have to take truth seriously even when it expands beyond the facts.

Evans: Side with the truth tellers.

L'Engle: Good heavens, no. I read one of them.

•••

Evans: I’m not against acronyms. I’m just trying to say what helped me through millions and millions of words at speed when I was in newspapers and publishing.

L'Engle: That’s silly. So is Winnie the Pooh.

Evans: But the thought is zero, virtually.

L'Engle: No, there was a period when I thought I never would. Anything but.

Evans: That’s why we remember the date.

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