The journalist Maureen Dowd has many notches in her belt, from feats like winning a Pulitzer Prize and writing pivotal profiles on some of the world’s most powerful people. She shone light on Elon Musk before DOGE and Uma Thurman’s emotional struggle with Quentin Tarantino, all of which is captured in her latest book, Notorious. Even for her, though, the process of writing remains fickle. Both Maureen and I want our writing to place readers in conversation with the greats who came before us, and whether we succeed is always up for interpretation. We never stop trying, though — and only occasionally read the comments. We also commune over a shared value of education once Maureen tells me I was the reason she decided to pursue graduate school.

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