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Q: The photo of you on the cover of the book is half in shadow. Was that a conscious decision not to let people know what you look like?

A: Absolutely! Here’s the thing: I didn’t really want to be on the cover of the book, and my publisher thought I really should be on the cover of the book. So my attitude was, I want the book to be a literary experience. In other words, I want the book to read well; I don’t want it to be a souvenir of a radio show. I want it to be a real book. As for my presence, I think of myself as a radio person, and one of the nice things about radio is that listeners imagine you in whatever way they want to. And I often feel, who am I to contradict them? And the kind of cover that I really hate is the kind of cover with the proud host, smiling, with their arms crossed, like, God, do I have a great life or what? And look at all these great people I’ve interviewed. I just hate those kinds of covers, where I think the goal is to make them seem enviable and happy and pleased with themselves. And I so didn’t want that cover. So that’s the compromise we arrived at: I’d be on the cover, but on the other hand, I’d be so in the shadows that I’d be visible, yet invisible at the same time.

Q: You’ve said you’re shy and pretty self-conscious. Why do you think you’ve become such an acclaimed interviewer?

A: I think radio is a great medium for someone who’s shy and self-conscious. It terrified me at first, really badly, but once I got over that, the nice thing about radio is that you are invisible, so any physical self-consciousness that I have is irrelevant when I’m on the radio. In terms of being shy, hey, I’m alone in a studio with producers in the control room, producers who I know really well, and I’m with a guest who probably isn’t even in the room with me. So I’m really operating in the realm of language and ideas.

Q: In the book you talked about asking guests about their invisible weaknesses and shortcomings. What are yours?

A: I think the fact that I have been shy helped me as an interviewer because I feel comfortable in the position where the spotlight isn’t on me. It’s not about me telling my stories and my funny anecdotes and the story of my life when I’m on the air. It’s about the guest, or it’s about the issue, and I’m going to muster up everything that I have in terms of research, intelligence, language, whatever, and put that at the disposal of helping this guest tell their story. So I don’t feel like I’m competing with the guest. There are shortcomings that I’ve tried to overcome, and have to some degree and not to others. Like, I sometimes stammer on the air. I work hard to not do that.

Q: Have you had people hang up on you during an interview?

A: Oh, I’ve had a lot of people walk out. Lou Reed walked out. Peter Boyle walked out. Faye Dunaway walked out. Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone walked out. Bill O’Reilly terminated the interview with me. And he prides himself on being so tough.

Q: You’re stuck on a desert island with three people you’ve interviewed. Which people would you want to have with you?

A: I would take Richard Thompson with me and force him to perform. I would probably take John Updike with me, and he could read his work, and he could describe for me everything that was going on around us, because I feel like when he describes something or somebody, I understand it better, because he knows just the right word. I might have Martin Short with me, to keep me laughing. Oh, can I bring a fourth person? I’d bring Richard Price with me, because I love his writing, and he’s one of the best talkers in the world. He wrote Clockers and a lot of screenplays. If I was stuck on a desert island, I would just so enjoy hearing him verbally riff.

Q: Who’s on your wish list of people you’d like to interview?

A: I don’t have one anymore. When the show went national we had a wish list, and most of the people who were on that list we’ve had on the air. The problem with the wish list is that the people who are usually on it are the hard-to-get celebrities, right? That’s why they’re on the wish list. And the hard-to-get celebrities tend to be hard to get for one of two reasons. Either they hate being interviewed, and if you did interview them, they would be fighting you every second because they just really hate it. The second reason why they might be hard to get is that they might not be very good at doing an interview. Because some people who are extraordinarily talented are not very good at describing their work or telling stories about their lives. They just might not be very verbal. Take Robert De Niro. He was on our wish list, and then we saw what agony it seems to be for him to be interviewed, and thought, why would we want to put him through that? And he’s not very communicative, judging from what I’ve seen. So I’ve kind of given up on the wish-list thing.

Q: How much longer do you see yourself doing Fresh Air?

A: I don’t know. I’d like to keep doing it. My only gripe, and I’ve been saying this for probably at least 28 years, is that I just wish I could work a little bit less. But as I always say, those of us who are lucky enough to have work that we love are usually unlucky enough to have more of it than we can handle. It seems to be the tradeoff for having interesting work, is that it takes over your nights and part of your weekends.

Q: But at least it keeps you interested.

A: Exactly. I mean, one of the things I dreaded when I was in college was the thought that when I got out of college, I’d be entering into this alien world where I’d have to dress like somebody else and talk like somebody else and do things that I was totally uninterested in, in order to earn a living. So I’m lucky that none of that has come true. I get to do work I really like and be who I am. The price that I pay is just an overwhelming amount of work. But I’ve chosen that tradeoff.

Terry Gross signs copies of All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists at Borders Book & Music, 10-24 School Street, in Boston, on October 29, at 12:30 p.m. The event is free. Call (617) 557-7188. She participates in a talk and Q&A at WBUR, 890 Comm Ave, in Boston, on October 29, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $150. Call (617) 353-8155. Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com