Like so many American kids of his generation, Tom Cruise came of age after America's fall in the war in Vietnam. Tet, My Lai, Cambodia, Kent State: To him these were just names, vague and confusing, void of any historical or emotional charge. The war was simply not part of his concerns or his consciousness. All afternoon Gerard Depardieu has been talking about his rage for acting, for getting deeply embroiled with auteur directors and their creative torments, for rollicking from film to film, from stage to stage, with an almost reckless abandon and outlaw joy. Now, suddenly, he thrusts up his hand: In the spring of 1970, using the threads of his own adolescence as guide wires, the French film director Louis Malle inched out onto a dangerous cinematic tightrope. He decided to make a highly personal film about a sensitive young boy coming of age, and he decided to make it not using trained child actors but with fresh faces and raw talent he himself would form. The Danish film director Gabriel Axel is a man inhabited by two sharply conflicting spirits. Meet Mr. Axel in his modern, functional apartment in Paris and he looks a tall, reedy, austere Scandinavian, a director who values Craft over Passion, Technique over Inspiration. He wears relaxed corduroy slacks but keeps his sweater primly buttoned up tight under his gray spade of a beard.

	I love doing profiles of artists and other creative people. Whether it's Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Gerard Depardieu, or Robert Mondavi, artists and creators always lead with their heart and their passions, and I believe that every artist has something important to teach us. With that in mind, I approach the art of the profile in a very special way. I do a lot of preliminary homework, of course, seeing their films or other work and reading about their lives. Going into the interview, I never want to have to ask a basic informational question. Instead, I want the interview to feel like a warm, supportive conversation. Unlike many writers, my ultimate aim is not to hear the sound of my own voice or to pass any judgments on my chosen subject. I'm there to encourage my subjects to come out of their shells and reveal to the reader what drives them, what are their deepest passions, what inspires them to create. I'm not there to cast shadows; I'm there to illuminate. So my operating method is simple: I check my own ego at the door, turn on a tape recorder, and then I listen - deeply. I listen for the words, of course, but I also listen for the deeper rumblings, the underlying emotions, and the soft, sensitive parts that lead you to the inner gold. The final challenge, then, is to take those words and those deeper rumblings and craft them into a coherent and insightful profile, one that will open doors and windows and allow readers to see what's inside. As you will see in the profiles of Tom Cruise, Travolta, Depardieu and the others posted here, I have been very lucky and very privileged: these unique artists have shared with me things that are deep and important. It is my joy to share them with you. Paul Chutkow