Jim Lehrer explains his lifelong love for the work of J.D. Salinger, and describes what he would ask in a dream interview with the literary legend.

Jim Lehrer: The one person that I’ve always wanted to interview and have not is J.D. Salinger. And the only question I would ask him is . . . not the one question . . . would be, “Why do you remain so silent so long? And what is it that you would like to say now?” And hopefully he ______. I’m reading “Catcher in the Rye”. It really was a major, major move for me in my development as a kid writer. And I just love “Catcher in the Rye.” And so he’s just . . . Salinger and his work have always been very important to me. In terms of . . . I don’t think there are . . . there are a lot of dead people that I would have loved to have interviewed, but there are no . . . I’m not longing . . . There are no big world leaders that I’m waiting to interview or whatever. It’s people like J.D. Salinger.