"CLARENCE THOMAS," SAYS GINNI THOMAS in a 2018 installment of her long-running Daily Caller interview series on the subject of leadership, "you're the best man walking the face of the earth." He chuckles. They sit a few feet apart in a small room near a clock, a bookshelf full of file folders, a plant in a wicker basket.
"It's an honor to interview you."
"Well, I'm really stressed out about this interview," he says, not smiling, then smiling, then laughing. Halfway through their time together, Clarence Thomas is talking about coming from a place where many of the adults around him were illiterate. He's talking about the deep pleasure he finds in old books, "like Christmas every day," the sense of gratitude for this knowledge denied his aunt, mother, grandfather.
"Now I know you think I'm a little different," he says. "And I am. But... you get to read Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson-many people kind of roll their eyes-"
Clarence, perhaps reading the lack of interest in Ginni's eyes, starts laughing.
"But just think of all the people," he says, motioning forward with his hand in a Clintonian gesture of explanation, "who were around him. Whether it was Edmund Burke or Adam Smith." He laughs again. "I mean, wouldn't you want to read Boswell's Life of Samuel he can hardly get the words out now, he's laughing so hard-"Johnson?"
Ginni laughs quietly.
"I'll put it on my list, Justice," she says with a little flick of the wrist and coy look into the distance.
"I'll lend you my copy," he says with a straight face.
"As long as you underline it for me."
He loses it.
"Okay," she says, ready to move on with her list of questions.
"What about," he says, leaning in, very serious now, "Wealth of Nations?"
"Just-" she says.
And he loses it again, a high-pitched laugh that tilts him forward in his chair.
"I have a life to live," she says, sighing.
This story is from the June 19-July 2, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June 19-July 2, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Enchanting and Exhausting
Wicked makes a charming but bloated film.
Nicole Kidman Lets Loose
She's having a grand old time playing wealthy matriarchs on the verge of blowing their lives up.
How Mike Myers Makes His Own Reality
Directing him in Austin Powers taught me what it means to be really, truly funny.
The Art of Surrender
Four decades into his career, Willem Dafoe is more curious about his craft than ever.
The Big Macher Restaurant Is Back
ON A WARM NIGHT in October, a red carpet ran down a length of East 26th Street.
Showing Its Age
Borgo displays a confidence that can he only from experience.
Keeping It Simple on Lower Fifth
Jack Ceglic and Manuel Fernandez-Casteleiro's apartment is full of stories but not distractions.
REASON TO LOVE NEW YORK
THERE'S NOT MUCH in New York that has staying power. Every other day, a new scandal outscandals whatever we were just scandalized by; every few years, a hotter, scarier downtown set emerges; the yoga studio up the block from your apartment that used to be a coffee shop has now become a hybrid drug front and yarn store.
Disunion: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
A Rift in the Family My in-laws gave me a book by a eugenicist. Our relationship is over.
Gwen Whiting
Two years after a mass recall and a bacterial outbreak, the founder of the Laundress is on cleanup duty.
