'My political views are always implicit in the text. In the Hollywood piece, Ross' views were in the quotes and settings she chose. Lauren Bacall plays the supportive spouse.' In the end, the director and the actors go to lunch together.

'John Huston takes to task right in the story,' said Ross. (Lillian Ross as a young New Yorker writer) In one scene, Ross depicts director John Huston attacking actor Humphrey Bogart on Bogart's backpedaling on his earlier protests against the committee. In 'Reporting Back,' she examines some of the effect of the anti-Communist campaign by the House Committee on Un-American Activities on movie stars and directors.

Ross' style is about setting and nuances. You are concentrating on what you consider to be the responsibilities of a reporter -'Get it all down, to get as much as possible.'' You don't hear in the way that helps you to be a writer. 'Using a recorder gets in the way of you being a writer. 'I chose my quotes very carefully,' said Ross of the fact she has never used a tape recorder in six decades of reporting. In an interview at a coffee shop near her New York City apartment, Ross discussed her new book and her style of journalism. In her new book, 'Reporting Back: Notes on Journalism' (Counterpoint, 292 pages, $25), Ross explores her writing experiences and how she builds trust with her subjects and focuses on the details and dialogues that are most revealing. Her specialty is her brilliant 'Talk of the Town' pieces, where she pulls out the essence of the characters she interviews, from actor Charlie Chaplin and director Gus Van Sant to a group of tough-talking Manhattan high school girls.

The legendary writer Lillian Ross has worked for The New Yorker magazine since 1945. There is also the 'Talk of the Town' style that Ross perfected, where you tend to kiss up to the wealthy and mock the rare working folks who appear in the section.

When we got into the nitty gritty, she had a lot of anger directed at Truman Capote and Chip McGrath, an ex-New Yorker writer and editor, who while helming the New York Times Book Review skewered her memoir of her five-decade adulterous affair with William Shawn, the storied New Yorker editor, who never left his wife. On the surface, she was a genial elderly woman. Lillian Ross was an interesting interview.

Reporting always lillian ross