>> this week on "q&a," our guest is christopher hitchens, contributing editor and columnist for van and the fair. mr. hitchens is the author of over one dozen books. his recent memoir is "hitch 22." he joins us from his home in washington d.c.. >> christopher hitchens, i interviewed you 20 times since 1983. i must say that this is one of the hardest. you have not been well. >> not very, no. >> what is the current status of your cancer? >> i have a tumor in my esophagus which has spread to my leonard's and i am afraid -- my lymph nodes and i am afraid it has moved it to my lungs. it is stage four. the thing to know about stage

four is that there is no stage five. that concentrates the mind a bit. i have some wonderful oncologist working with me -- gynecologistoncologists working. i am sorry, but my voice is a bit husky today. that is the situation. i have to practice staying alive and preparing to die at the same time. as my memoir says, that is what one has to do will the time. you are never more than a breath away. it is a bit more vivid to me. doctors in the morning and lawyers in the afternoon. >> why did you decide to take us through that journey in your riding in "then the fair?"

i was wondering -- of vanity fair. >> i was pressed by my editor. i tried to do it in such a way in that it was not a parade of my feelings or a yellow ribbon tied journalism. i have been told that some people have been comforted by it to a degree. if you have a lemon, make lemonade. it is better than staring at the wall. it is a great subject. everyone has to do this at one point or another. either survive or die off. it is what one is certainly born to do. as an extension, when i was hit with it, i thought i should keep up the narrative because it is a

part of my life. that i have had my genomes sequenced. i am able to write about exciting new developments in the field of oncology that i hope will become available to more people. it is a tantalizing time to have cancer for me. there are treatments that i can see that are just out of my reach. there are others that are traub but probably just beginning -- that are probably just beginning. if i can hang on, i can, and intend to try. >> you just had your gall bladder out. that had nothing to do with it? >> i have a very bad episode a couple of years ago.

my doctors said i crashed. i have a meltdown in my bone marrow. my gall bladder and rancid and i was in terrible pain. i was really flat out. i got a blood transfusion. i am back. i am hanging on. >> what has this done to the old head? >> the worst of the treatments was what is called "chemo brain." you feel fought in the head and you do not want to read, let alone write. if i could not do that, i wouldn't have a reason to live. i did not want to get into this now. it turns out that the chemo

brain is the transition area- transitioninary. i could write a column today if i was lucky and had some strong coffee. i can sit and read. i can converse. if anything was to spread in that direction, that i probably would feel that that was the end. >> what has been the reaction from other people about your condition? >> i know quite a number of people now. because i had to cancel a book tour just as it was beginning, a rather lavish book tour, back in the summer, i could not just to go into treatment. i had to make a statement as if i was some kind of public figure as to what i could not keep these appointments. -- what i could not keep those appointments. -- why i could not keep those

appointments. i have my opinions about the supernatural and religious life. people thought that now would be the time for me to make a reconsideration and withdraw from the principles of a lifetime and make my peace with some church or other. there was a lot of public talk of that. there was a national day of prayer for me. that was in my favor. other people law lead in the other direction -- lobbied in the other direction. some people can't help but do that. i get the mills in my office -- id e-mail in my office.

they try to assure me that my life has not been a waste of time. i am 62 and april if i make it that far. -- in april if i may get that far. these things are already known to me. i never put off writing a letter to someone in distress. it is always very much appreciated. i am not asking for more people to write to me, but if they have someone in mind, i would do it. it has been a particular help to me. i am not usually stirred. this is very moving for me and very confirming. >> has any of your professional enemies come to you during this time? >> rivals or people that take

the opposite view, they have been very nice. i have had newspaper columns written about me. there was an editorial in the times of london. i felt like i was reading my obituary. i thought it was nice, but it gave me a creepy feeling of being premature. i do not know how many personal enemies i have. the number of people that have written to me saying that they hope that i suffer now and forever after i had died, i would say that was small. >> go back for a moment. it was quite a series of events.

i have your more in my hands. -- your memoir in my hands. did you have any premonition at all about death? >> no, i had a free gift from a gallery in london that publishes a magazine for subscribers about its upcoming tax -- exhibitions. there was a photograph that included me. and they put the word "late" next to my name. the late christopher hitchens. they probably thought i was going to sue. they said that they would withdraw. i told them to send as many as they have.

it makes a wonderful small introduction to my memoir is called a prologue of premonitions. at that stage, i had no idea. >> but you went on the daily show with john stuart right around the time that you found out. >> i went on that show the day that i was diagnosed. >> did you know at the time? >> yes, i was told that morning. i was feeling very ill. i had to be taken to the hospital. i thought i was having a heart attack. they said that it was not my heart. they said that i could discharge myself if i wanted, but they recommended i stayed for observation. they said that the next stop should be the oncologist because there was probably a tumor in my esophagus but it had spread.

i decided to discharge myself because i wanted to do the jon stewart show. i managed to do both of the shows. i have just had the sentence read to me. >> let's was just a little bit of the show so that people can see. when they see this, you know that you have a real problem. >> yes, i have never seen it. >> i have a bloody mary to start the day to ward off depression. it worked for 10 years. it concentrated my mind. there will one day be -- that unsealed the memory a bit.

there is no choice of leaving now, is there? >> i do not think that people should be able to decide for you. i am very impressed that someone that has lived it, you have not taken it easy on this body. but you do not look like [beep], but you should. [laughter] >> there is crying inside. [laughter] >> it is seedy. >> i am beginning to see that. >> as i saw it, you look like you had a sense of creamer and you work fairly normal. what was your head telling you? >> i did what it took to do the

show. it was only the dinner after that that i felt that i could not carry on any more -- in manymore. i was violently sick. >> due to have any indication that something was going wrong? >> no, i had nothing but very good annual checkups. >> your father died of esophageal cancer. >> he did. >> did that penetrate? >> it was in the book. but i used to smoke very heavily. i was afraid it was going to be in the lonung. the thing about esophageal

cancer is you can have it for quite a while. it is very hard to detect. unless you have an upper gi almost every month and you are looking for it, you are likely to miss it. you do not see it until metastasizes. you could feel it in the lymph node on my neck. that is not a good song. >> he began what kind of treatment? >> treatment of chemotherapy, which made me lose all my hair. it is growing back with the new chemical i am trying, slightly. it made me lose a lot of weight and may be very tired. it was immeasurably reduced. >> where did you have this done? >> in bethesda. >> that started what month last year? >> july. >> and it ended when? >> it is still going on.

thanks to a wonderful doctor, he did the human genome project. it was a marvelous scientific achievement. we became friends that way. we became friendly debaters and he took an interest in my case and he was trying to look for a more perfect identifiable match. today is friday the 14th. on monday, i hope to try that. if my bone marrow is recovered

enough, that involves 6 million -- 6 billion dna matches. that is set up against 6 billion dna matches of my blood. it is actually the -- absolutely amazing that is worthy project is for finding out where the genome will be applied to individuals and their predicaments. it will be commonplace. there is a terrible lack of funding. people can write their congressman. there is the attempt to do this.

i would like to become more than i am. >> you touch your chemical treatment at nia? >> no, i had tests there. that was in bethesda. the consult with a panel of like-minded experts. they work out a protocol for me and adjust it every few weeks. >> you wrote about a woman that came up to you when you were signing books. she starts off -- >> shall i tell? >> yes. >> i was signing books and there

was a long line and a woman at the front comes to me. she does not have a book. she said that a cousin of hers has cancer and i said that i was sorry. she said that it was in the liver and i said that it was awful. she said that it got much worse. she din said that he was a homosexual and i was not going to say, "of course." she said he was in great pain and had incontinence. i was beginning to run out of things to say.

i told her i knew exactly what it she was going through. i asked if she would treat me like that if i was well. i think that, as patients, we need to reciprocate. some people to make a huge parade of their condition. i tried to write about it in other contexts. i wrote about the national day of prayer. i have written about treatments. >> you wrote in the prologue of your book, "hitch 22," i

personally want to do death in the active and passive in to be there to look it in the eye and be doing something when it comes for me. what does that mean? >> i want to be conscious for it. ideally, i would like to be making a speech about it. or making love or sitting with friends. or to conceivably try to be with people gathered around and try to make a decent fare well. i have had cause to reconsider that. if this cancer does not go into remission, it is a very

unpleasant way to die. >> why? >> well, it is like choking in your own peuke. it can be preceded by a lot of humiliations. the sentence includes that you be tortured before you die. i now feel a slight bravado. i would like to be awake and looking at people if i am lucky, in talking to them. i am not so sure that i would insist on it. it might be as well to slip stupor.a narcotic it might be. something about that may sound very old fashioned. as i say, it is part of life.

i want to get as much out of it as i can. >> how much, during this time, have you talked about this thing with your wife? >> she has been a mainstay for me. she does things that i do not like to do. she looks up every conceivable ramification of treatment. she tirelessly looks for new doctors and avenues. we talk about losing and when i am gone. my determination is that i am not going to die of it now. this is a possibility. i say that i will do everything i can to be an experimental subject for other things that did not work for me.

until you have done something for timidity, you should be ashamed to die. that would be doing something for humanity. i would be willing to do it. >> in the middle of all this, a couple of weeks ago, you debated tony blair in toronto. >> i carried on with this and other questions. >> i wanted to point out you making a point. >> watch that. >> you do not want religion taught to children in school, imposed on me by violence, if any of these things. you are fine by me. [applause]

i would prefer not even to know what it is that you do in that church of yours. [laughter] in fact, if you force it on my attention, i would see it as a breach of that pact. and have your own bloody christmas. do your slaughtering. do not delete the genitals of your children. -- to do not harm the genitals of your children. has this pact ever been honored by the other side? of course not. i will share this with you. if i believe that there was a sent by godofiphet that loved me, if i believed

that and possessed the means of grace and hope of glory, i think that i might be happy. why doesn't it make him happy? -- them happy? [laughter] they will not be happy until you believe it to. why is that? because that is what the holy books tell them. >> why did you do that debate? when was it? >> thanksgiving. >> what condition were you in? >> i kind my treatment -- i kind mine treatment -- timed my treatment. it was a huge event. a lot of money went into fixing it up and getting there and getting security. i never like to cancel any way,

but i could not do that. i was physically all right and mentally quite alert. that was the first time blair had been in a debate since he was prime minister. >> you were taking -- tell us your position. >> i have debated many since i've been sick. blair was involved in catholicism. i wanted to debate about that. what i wanted to concede was that the evils that people like myself speak about we talk about religion, his co-thinkers would say that it was done in the name of. i said that you have to stop

that. the holy books are supposed to be the word of god for these people. it is a cop to say it is in the name of. you have to face the responsibility. in fact, when we were asked one question, to say what would be the strongest point made by the other, he said that he agreed that i was right. the problem is, there is scriptural authority. that is my best memory. i opened with a long quotation from a cardinal. it was a very wicked quotation. i wanted to know whether the catholic church was the one true

church. it was quite strange. he did not come up to fight me on that. you could not tell that he was catholic at all. he could have been a very weak christian socialist liberal. it basically says the christianity is ok because it makes people do good works and give money to charity. no one denies that it is true but it has nothing to do with the rubble-the relevance of the trees of the matter. -- the relevance of the truth of the matter. so, it was an interesting debate. excuse me. sorry, brian. [coughing] i will just have a sip, here. >> the first interview i ever

conducted with you was on november 7, 1983. >> i remember it was winter. >> a call-in show. i just want to run one minute 24 seconds and we will talk about it. >> when journalists lose their credibility based upon their past performance, the american people are speaking out now. i feel that without no type of checks and balances on journalists, they are doing exactly what this tournament is doing here. he reports on all the faults, but does not take a deep enough look at the positive aspects of what a free press really is. >> i get set up with this question of what, actually. how do you presume to know that the american people are

speaking? to the extent that you can speak for them, you can only know it for reading a free press and watching a free tv. the papers are reporting the facts that are unpopular with the administration and the harm with which this is done, they it is true that it is probably on reagan's side on this one. you're going to end up not knowing very much about what is going on. do not prevent me or anyone else from reading them. >> you can see how times have changed from that clip. there you were, on our set, smoking. >> i was doing that until quite late on 3 >> i cannot remember -- >> the whole studio look like chernobyl.

>> i appreciate you calling me david on that show. >> it was the name of a very distinguished los angeles times journalist. >> it is fun to go back to that time. in those days, there was a lot of bravado about smoking and drinking. for the first show we did, i went with you to a bar and you had a cigarette. did your father smoke? >> my father was a pipe smoker. reasonably thought she was a reasonably consistent drinker, too. i cannot help but think that is

what contributed to it. we do not talk about his death, my brother and i. i know that it was lowered down and went up -- where mine is. >> is yours and operable? >> it cannot be cut out. it has spread. it is too near my lungs and my heart to be properly created. it has to be chemo and were targeted gene therapy. i always knew that there was a risk in the bohemian life. i decided to take because weather is an illusion or not, i don't think it is. it helped my concentration. it stopped me being bored and sought other people being boring.

it would make me want to prolong the conversation to enhance the moment. if i was asked if i would do it again, the answer is probably yes. i would have quit earlier in order to get away with the whole thing is -- the whole thing. >> it is not nice for my children to hear. it would be hypocritical for me to say that i would never touch the stuff i had known. i did know. everyone knows. i decided that all of life was a wager and i would take this winter. i cannot make it come out any other way. i almost did not even regret it. it is just impossible for me to think of life without wine and other things you and the company. and keeping me reading and

traveling in energizing me. -- and energizing me. >> what has bored you? >> it is a vice. it is one of the deadly sins. i am too prone to it. i get easily tired of committee meetings. i do not have to do many of those. or waiting in line. i am a very impatient person. i am very happy by myself if i have something to read or something to write about. it adds an edge, it doesn't all

odull it. >> during this time of your illness, have you had a lot of pain? >> yes, especially before i found out it was the gall bladder, not the side effects. i was getting worried. i told the doctors that i am living from pill to pill. i surely should not be taking this much morphine or coating -- or codeine. i would like to think that the gall bladder was the cause of that. it was quite manageable. it became unbearable. >> how many days ago the to have your gall bladder out? >> ted, i think. -- ten, think.

>> do you feel better because of it? >> not yet. the anaesthetic takes a while to wear off. i could not have done this yesterday. >> really? >> i absolutely cannot. i could not get out of bed. >> about 36 years ago, a m columnist from "newsweek" had leukemia and wrote about. have you gone back and looked at any of his columns? no. >> he told the story. i think he may have had bone marrow transplants. he took us all the way through the process. how much more are we going to hear from you about your

situation? >> i hope all lot -- i hope a lot. i think that the main thing is to emphasize the extraordinary innovations that are becoming available based on our new knowledge of our genetic makeup. so, as these treatments are applicable to me, some of them are. i am hoping to write in some detail and color people that they may not -- inform people of christmas that the men i know about. -- and poor people -- informed people of treatments they may not know about.

this is precisely to see if i can participate in pushing back boundaries. >> have you lost interest in certain things in the world? >> no. >> not at all? >> no. >> as you sit here today, what would be your number one interest of things going on in the world. >> right now? >> right now. ,> looking at today's paper which is the first thing i do every day, still, i suppose it would have to be one version or another of the confrontation with confrontationjihad. in particular -- confrontation with islamic jihad. where the whole threat seems to have been camped up.

there is a man murdered in cold blood on the grounds that he opposes blasphemy. even though he has not committed blasphemy. anyone who is muslim is entitled to kill him. it used to be bad enough, on conviction, you could face a death sentence. that was warranted by the koran. now, permission for anybody to appoint himself and executioner on the spot and the agent of religion and murder anyone they

like is fantastically dangerous. we decide to invest ourselves in the idea that there are moderates to be found who will send this off. i do not think there is a prayer. >> what about this process of having to face this illness? the reason i ask, when you went off there, some people give that up when they are faced with this situation. what has changed? what about this process has surprised you? your process of becoming ill and they tell you that you have stage four esophageal cancer. are you surprised about 80 of this last six months -- are you

surprised about this last six months? >> i think that the more of a person -- i think that the more of a person of age 60 has to face that. it has not been all that surprising. it is a commonplace thing. i do not sit around asking myself, "why me?" i would not even say why not. it is a commonplace thing. it is almost laughably predictable. the interesting thing about it is the treatments that were unknown until recently. >> there are many examples that

we hear from friends with a doctor will say some very straightforward and crew that things and make life very uncomfortable. there was a reporter in this town that told me one day that the doctor called him and said, "guess what, you have the big c ." i could not believe that that happened. >> that is a bit crass. >> what marx was to give the medical profession and -- what marks would you give the medical profession? >> they have not pronounced my chances, which i decided not to do it first until it occurred to me that it would be very useful for accounting purposes to have

a rough idea. one has to plan for once loved ones. i would like to have a guess. they do not like being asked because they do not really know. the best answer i got was that if you took a thousand people of my age, state of health and gender, 1000, half would be dead in one year. of the remaining half, some could live more than a year and some could live for quite a few years. they cannot do any better than that. >> what is your reaction to people like me? we come to your apartment 3 want to sit down and talk to you. we want to hear your story. are you surprised at that?

>> a little bit, yes. i was. a lot of it has been because of my stance on religion. a large number of people have asked me if it changes my attitude to the supernatural. i said that i really do not see why it should. i do not find it a certain question. i spent my life deciding that there is not redemption or salvation. there is no supervising force. if i was to tell you that i have a malignancy in my esophagus, and that changes everything, you think that the main effect would have been on my iq.

it is a logical. -- is a logical -- it is illogical. even the nice people that have been praying for me. they are not only praying for my recovery, they are praying for my reconciliation with religion. i proposed a trade-off. what if we secularists stop going to hospitals and walking around the wards and asking if people are religious when they are extremists. you would feel much better. all of that nonsense they taught you pretty can still have every chance to give it up. experience the life of a free thinking person. do not believe in mythology per live-apology. we do not do that.

i do not resent it at all because i like the opportunity for the argument. a lot of it has to do with that. i do not letter myself as a public figure. -- flatter myself as a public figure. >> the book that we did in 1993. i want to get your reaction. >> for me, it has always been the first eight. this it was a way of getting out of bed in the morning. in this country, where people like to be non churchmen to when the candy -- nonjudgmental when they can be, one would not be doing one's job. >> is it still a good idea to a people?

>> since it is not really unavoidable -- not really avoidable, i turn it into and advantage. -- i turn it into an advantage. since it is coupled with the injunction to love of god that you are supposed to fear, there is something very honest in contrast to find someone who is completely unbearable. it is bound to -- it is a bit like i call. it is a good servant, but it is a bad master. i have a complete hate for henry kissinger. it enables me to penetrate this fog in which he is shrouded.

it does not eat away at me. it does not keep me awake at night. it does not fill me with a but i do think there is such a thing as evil and the world and it is sometimes personified. there is no obligation to be ambivalent, there. >> have you changed your mind at all about mother teresa? >> why would i change my mind about her? i could not exactly a her because she was a prophetic figure, but i detested the influence that she had. i could tell you why in a sentence if you want. the very reason is that we know what the cure for poverty is.

give women some control over their reproduction cycle. get them off the animal routine. the breathing machine. -- of the breeding machine. the population will decline sharply. it would never fail. mother teresa spent her entire life opposing everything that works. she opposed birth control and abortion, which she called a murder -- which she called murder. that is basically it. the reputation of said to that she got is nonsense. -- the reputation that she got

is nonsense. she would bless them in return. it goes on her whole effect was entirely retrograde. the book has been looked at by every step in the world. if half of what i say is true about her, then none of what is commonly believed about her is true. but i am used to this now. people need a complete solution. >> what would to do with henry kissinger-what would you do with henry kissinger called to and try to bury the hatchet after all these years. ? >> i know that it could not

happen. he has made it a condition when he appears on television programs that he be asked about the book. never mind me, there is no reason to like me. i know that i needled him. he lied about vietnam and chile and bangladesh. we have other people in that part of history who tried to make some sort of restitution --

sort of retribution. they were sort of sorry. we have some evidence that we think we should share with you, they say. kissinger has never said a word of self criticism. he gets very petulant and angry and spoiled and ugly when he is criticized. i would be fascinated to meet him. >> we do not have much time. >> do not say that. [laughter] >> i will be the judge of that. >> if you knew that there was a certain amount of time left, six months, a year, what ever? is there anything that you want to do? >> what they do not tell you is what kind of months these will

be. >> what have you not done? >> before this man died, he had done a lot of traveling and he kept up his interest in human rights and international policy. then he got word that it was back and he made -- that is what i need to know. the great loss is the inability to travel. i got to toronto. that was not hard. i have been to california. a private plane was sent to me to go to montana and i finally got to see little bighorn. the wonderful national park. i have three american states and

visited. >> which one? >> the dakotas and wisconsin. someone said to me, "are you afraid you will not see england again?" >> i was. i would have to be told that i was on a camel holiday. >> we are out of time. the best way to end it is to say that i will see you in a couple of years. >> absolutely. >> thank you very much. >> it is brian, isn't it? >> for a dvd copy of this program call 1-877-662-7726.

for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at q&a.org. q&a programs are also available as c-span podcasts. >> coming up next on c-span, british prime minister david cameron and at 11:30 p.m., is the road to the white house with michelle bachman of minnesota speaking in the morning, iowa. -- en des moines, iowa. after that, another chance to see this week's "q&a," with commentator christopher hitchens. >> some live program to tell you

about. on c-span2 tomorrow, a meeting on federal commission on wartime contract in iraq and afghanistan and problems on u.s. funded reconstruction. panelists include retired major general arnold fields who was appointed stuck in -- special inspector general in june, 2008. that is live at 9:30 a.m. eastern, tomorrow on suspend2. later, the house judiciary committee holds a hearing on executives in need of scrutiny. a bill authorized in congress to vote on executive-branch regulations with an economic impact of that least $100 million or that could cause increases in costs or prices for consumers. that is live tomorrow on c-span2 starting at 4:00 p.m. eastern. >> congress returns to session

this week to work on a number of items. the house doubles in at 2:00 p.m. eastern on monday for legislative business. the plan to begin a debate on a measure that would cut all discretionary non security federal spending till boss until fiscal year 2008. a final bill is expected on tuesday. see that live on c-span. the senate returns to session at 10:00 a.m. eastern. there will be time for general speeches before turning to a proposal to change the senate rules on the filibuster which is used to block or delay action on legislation. the proposal aims to limit when and how the filibuster can be used. live coverage of the senate can be seen on c-span2. >> tuesday, president obama delivers the state of the union address to a joint session of congress. c-span's live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern.

then, the republican response by paul ryan of wisconsin. plus, your phone calls and reaction, live on c-span, c-span radio an online at c-span.org. you can also watch the address on c-span2. >> it is the same old story. >> the same prescriptive line. he practices them every week. i am sure they sound fantastic in the bathroom mirror. >> now, from london, prime minister's questions. this week, david cameron answer questions regarding the national

health services focusing on patient wait times for the prime minister also answer questions on job creation and educational subsidies for students. >> order, questions for the prime minister. >> thank you, mr. speaker. >> this morning i had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. in addition to my duties in the house, i shall have further such meetings later today. >> the nhs is facing massive reorganization, while at the same time seeking the greatest savings in its 62-year history. respected professional medical bodies warn about the risks to public service of giving private companies the easy pickings. before pursuing that gamble will the prime minister reflect carefully, informed by clinicians and the coalition program that we agreed last may?