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I would like to think it was certainly emailed because I can't imagine a live interviewer getting those kind of answers and continuing in that vein; I really want to assume the only way that could have happened was if there was no real back-and-forth between the interviewer and the interviewed.

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It's a standard thing NYT does and it's pretty obvious that the questions are pre-written and sent as a batch.

http://www.nytimes.com/column/by-the-book

Alas, what a lazy approach. An opportunity wasted.

I don't think that's fair. It's one of several standard types of interview, and legit in its own right, as long as one doesn't confuse it with the others. It's not like Ursula Le Guin hasn't done plenty of face-to-face interviews too.

> It's one of several standard types of interview

Except it's not actually an interview. Call it a Q&A or something if you like, but "interview" implies back-and-forth conversation.

That's fair enough re my usage of the word, but the article never calls itself an interview, and the point that this is a well-known standard format holds. Let's not dismiss things for shallow reasons.

More appropriate to call it a questionnaire than an interview.

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