MRH: Did you find it difficult to write your autobiography, because you had to establish a timeline for your entire life, and map out pivotal moments?

LS: No, I didn’t find it difficult. After I finished, I asked a friend of mine, Richard Palmer, a professor of English at Oxford in England, to help me to pull the book into better shape, but basically what I wrote is there.

First of all, you have to realize that I’m a writer of music, and I don’t write books. I mean, this is the first book that I’ve ever written, and I don’t know if I’m going to write more books because I don’t write fiction. I was excited by the idea of writing this autobiography, [and while] I didn’t have any publisher at the time, I had to get it off my chest.

MRH: And my last question is about a specific anecdote in your autobiography, where at a press conference you gave an extremely elaborate answer when a music journalist asked you why you composed the Mission: Impossible theme in 5/4 rhythm.

LS: That was at the Salzburg Festival, which is one of the most prominent classical music festivals. I was very lucky and very thankful to do jazz music with the symphony in Salzburg.

[Schifrin's explanation, in its most distilled form, goes like this: his choice of rhythm was in tribute to the five-legged babies born after the atomic tests in New Mexico, so they had something to dance to. Seriously. Both the Michel and Schifrin books retell this delicious moment of whimsy spiced by the composer’s serious need to get a decent breakfast after a long, long day without food.]

LS: I said that, and she wrote it like it was real, and when I came back from Europe it was published in one of the most prominent music magazines in Austria, and my European booking agent said, ‘What are you doing? Are you crazy?’

MRH: Your explanation was very elaborate and very detailed. I think that’s one of the reasons she was convinced. In reading your reply, there is a certain ‘logic’ to it, even though it’s completely crazy. It’s very detailed.

LS: Well, I have a strange sense of humour.

MRH: It’s a good sense of humour.

LS: Thanks you.