Christopher Hitchens - In Confidence interview

I'm very fond of this photo of my favourite writer and polemicist.

It was taken when he was fighting against stage four oesophagus cancer. Obviously, he looks very ill, but, his eyes are very strong.

 I guess he was having an interview, talking about politics, religion, morality, etc....
And we can see a glass of his favourite Johnny Walker Black (?) at his side.
Well, that would be really characteristic of Hitchens.

It's been two years since his untimely death.
I've learned a great deal from his writings and lectures. He was an awesome teacher for me. He made me think about what's going on around the world.
I really love to know what he thinks now about Mandela's death, new Pope, North Korea......
It's a real tragedy that we can't hear his voice any more.

Here in this interview with Laurie Taylor, he looks very tired and ill, but, his mind is very lucid, and his polemic is still razor sharp.
This is the man who, even in his death, still keeps me inspired.

“I hate the idea that somebody like Henry Kissinger is what, well into his 80s now, or Pope Benedict likewise, would live long enough to read my obituary when I had fully intended to be writing theirs and I make no bones about it.
That’s why I don’t ask for sympathy because I’m not intending to dish it out.”