The American drama and cultural critic Mel Gussow (1933–2005) first met Samuel Beckett in Paris in 1978 and over the following ten years spoke informally with the playwright and with some of his collaborators, including the actor Billie Whitelaw and director Mike Nichols. In these candid conversations Beckett offers glimpses of his method of writing and, in Gussow’s words, ‘the extreme difficulty and urgency of his creativity’. Slightly off-mint.