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Hitchens On Death

• Holdengräber: In the first 4-5 pages of your memoir, one thing that strikes me is a real fear of death, and it some way I think that the memoir is written to hold it at bay.
• Hitchens: Of course. I’ve always known that I’m born into a losing struggle… don’t know anyone who’s come out of that a winner. One should try to write as if posthumously. Because then you’re free of all the inhibition that can cluster around even the most independent-minded writer. You don’t really care about public opinion now, you don’t mind about sales, you don’t care what the critics say. You don’t even care what your friends, your peers, your beloved think. You’re free. Death is a very liberating thought.