Roosevelt’s Inaugural Address is your first choice. Tell me about this speech.

This was made at a very critical period in our country’s history. It was a speech that every American who had a radio was listening to. I thought it gave the country a sense of hope, when all around them there seemed to be nothing but hopelessness. There were 25 million people out of work and the stock market had collapsed two or three years before, so this speech summoned the country to a sense of hope.

What is it about the actual speech, about the way it’s written, that is so brilliant?

Well, what impressed me about the speech was that, to me, the measure of or index of a good speech is not merely the words that are festooned together and spoken – presumably by someone who has a good delivery or even an exceptional delivery – but the extent to which the text of speech, the substance of the speech, is responsive and addresses the major issues of the time. I wasn’t so concerned about Roosevelt’s delivery, but I measured the text against the magnitude of the problem to which it was addressed.

The famous line is: ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’

The country was in great fear. The country was in great despair, so that phrase was trying to speak to the Everyperson, to address the issue that was on everyone’s mind.

Tell me about JFK’s inaugural address.

Well, JFK, as you know, or maybe you don’t know, won the presidential election by merely 120,000 popular votes over Richard Nixon. The country was clearly divided; we were in the apex of what one would now describe as the Cold War, the great competition between ourselves and the Soviet Union, and here this younger man had taken over from Eisenhower, a World War II hero. This young man, whose inauguration day was relatively cold, some would say freezing cold, gave the address with no hat on, no scarf on, signalling the health and vitality of the new younger generation. He enumerated the problems that the country was confronted with, and then, of course, came the classic line: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ Just recently we had the passing of Sargent Shriver, who was the architect of the Peace Corps, the most celebrated form of government volunteer service that this country has ever had. The Peace Corps came out of the Kennedy administration. What came out of the address was that we could indeed be competitive with the Soviet Union, that this was a new generation coming into power and he wanted to say to the people that this new generation was ready – professionally ready, managerially ready, morally ready, militarily ready. It was up to the task.

Who wrote it?

Well, Theodore Sorensen contributed to it.

Did he write most of JFK’s speeches or help write them?

Yes, he helped write most of them.

Tell me about Laurence Olivier’s Oscar acceptance speech (which I’ll quote for our readers, since it’s not very long).

“Mr President and governors of the Academy, committee members,
fellows, my very noble and approved good masters, my colleagues, my
friends, my fellow students: In the great wealth, the great firmament
of your nation's generosities this particular choice may perhaps be
found by future generations as a trifle eccentric, but the mere fact
of it – the prodigal, pure, human kindness of it – must be seen as a
beautiful star in that firmament which shines upon me at this moment
dazzling me a little, but filling me with the warmth of the
extraordinary elation, the euphoria that happens to so many of us at
the first breath of the majestic glow of a new tomorrow. From the top
of this moment, in the solace, in the kindly emotion that is charging
my soul and my heart at this moment, I thank you for this great gift
which lends me such a very splendid part in this, your glorious
occasion. Thank you.”

It was a very short speech, and its power was in its spontaneity and its erudition. I don’t have to tell you that he was one of the great actors of the 20th century. A number of people who get Academy Awards come up and read from a written text or they say something that is kind of banal, but Olivier quoted some Shakespeare. It was very eloquent. It really spoke about the fact that he was honoured and humble – but it was just the way he spoke to this group of actors and actresses, and an example of the magnificent use of language.

What did he win for?

I think it was a Lifetime Achievement Award.

So, now we're moving on to your speech. The Martin Luther King.

Well, the Martin Luther King speech, of course… To understand it, you have to see it within the historical context. It was made three months after a very successful and very searing campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, in April of 1963, when the country and the world saw pictures of young negro girls and boys being pummelled against a wall with fire hoses and police dogs nipping at their ankles as they were peacefully marching in opposition to racial segregation.