Is It Ever Okay For An Interviewee To Walk Out Of An Interview?

Robert De Niro and Zaha Hadid are just the most recent examples of high-profile artists to angrily end a session when (rightly or wrongly) they don’t like the drift of the questions. Observer writer Barbara Ellen and Channel Four presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy discuss the question (their answer won’t be a surprise) and their own experiences with walkouts.

Walter Benjamin’s Legacy, 75 Years On

“For devotees of Critical Theory, he is now seen as one of the founding fathers … having helpfully transcended mere wittering about paintings, books and Mickey Mouse by also sketching a philosophy of history. … And, almost as a hobby, he is the inspirational linkman between the 19th-century flâneur and today’s psychogeographers.”

Evaluating The Architecture (And Choices) Of Zaha Hadid

“Surely, goes the reasonable argument, an architect’s job is to provide a building that works, meets its brief, and is on time and on budget. It’s hard to argue otherwise, except that this reasoning would have strangled at birth many of the world’s greatest and most popular buildings: the Palace of Westminster, St Pancras station, the Sydney Opera House, the Pompidou Centre, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, most of the work of Antoni Gaudi.”

Living Inside The Legendary Parisian Bookstore Shakespeare & Co.

“The Tumbleweeds sleep in beds that have been placed throughout the bookshop — next to the piano, above the Mirror of Love — and there are generally around four people living in the bookstore at a time. One of George’s rules that still remains is that all Tumbles must read a book a day. (They also help open and close the shop, work for two hours a day, and help out with the weekly readings.)”