I can’t believe it’s been nearly 12 years since I interviewed journalist and author Steve Lopez. I was a sports writer/columnist for The Trenton Times, but occasionally I liked to branch out, so I wrote a piece for the “Books” section of the paper.

He had done a reading of his novel The Sunday Macaroni Club at the Barnes and Noble in Princeton and we sat down for a one-on-one afterwards. I so enjoyed it because it was partially an interview but also very much a conversation about writing. I hadn’t thought about it in years, but all the recent promos about the movie he inspired (The Soloist — Robert Downey Jr. plays Lopez) prompted me to pluck the aforementioned novel off my shelf.

I was delighted all over again to see what he had inscribed:

To Nancy,

Thank you for the most intelligent and thoughtful interview I’ve ever experienced. It was a pleasure and good luck.

Steve Lopez

So looking forward to seeing the movie.