•AASTHA MANOCHA: When you returned to the New York Times, it was going through a credibility crisis. How did you go about correcting the situation?

It was a funny occasion in my life because a lot of people who were not particularly distressed to see me leave, welcomed me back like some kind of reborn saint. My theme when I returned was that we are just going back to work and we are going to do things the way we know was the right way to do them and stop talking about ourselves. I thought my task was to get the New York Times to forget about the New York Times for a little while. It was 2003 and America was already in Iraq. I was also trying to push authority down, because one of the features of the previous regime was that there were a lot of edicts out there and people were afraid to do things without making sure that the guys on top were going to approve it in advance. So I was trying to get people to calm down and do their work in the way they are supposed to.

•AASTHA MANOCHA: What do you have to say about the difference in philosophy between you and your successor, Howell Raines?

I wasn’t there when he was there. I’ve not exchanged a word with him since all this happened. So I don’t really know what happened then. He wrote about what he thought the differences in our philosophy were, and I refer you to that. I think that if we had actually talked, there would have been a fair amount that we would have agreed on and he would have been surprised. I have been very careful not to say a word about him since all this happened and that’s my plan for the rest of my life.

... contd.