today he's considered one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary fiction-- novelist junot diaz. i'm maria hinojosa. this is one on one. junot, welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me, maria. >> hinojosa: so, a pulitzer for the brief wonderous life of oscar wao. are you still on the pulitzer high? >> no. i don't know if i ever got the pulitzer high. >> hinojosa: no. >> yeah. well, i mean, it's just more about my personality. again, my friends pointed out that i never had a party or even a celebration for it. i just kept working. so that's usually the way i am. but you know, it's been a great ride. i've had a lot of fun. >> hinojosa: okay, so when you called your mom, what did you say? i mean, i want you to say, like, the exact words-- (speaking spanish) >> i didn't call my mom. i was at her house. >> hinojosa: oh! so what did you say to your mom? >> nothing. i just said... i mean, not nothing. i said, "mother... (speaking spanish)" and she's... my mother's very practical, you know? she's like, you know, "(speaking spanish)" i said, "(speaking spanish)," and she laughed.

rituals festooning the trees with ribbons and sacred objects wetted in milk and fumigated with fragrant junot the smoke. of humor take off their cap go down on the knees to the sound of the drum beat. turn their own clockwise. run around the trees and stand behind them. run around the trees three times. now circle to come three times. down on a nice here. from pick up the grass from the ground put in the cup and drink at home from. people dig up the birch trees and again pray to the spirits asking them to accept their gifts as an atonement for a tree desecrated a long time ago the procession then heads to the sacrificial bum fires in step all the so-called white food like bread cakes cookies butter and cheese is tossed into the fire milk and vodka to a considered offerings to the spirits the flames of another bomb fire lick but trees decorated with multi colored ribbons all this has to be reduced to ashes of the spirit so to meet people's requests you think of our deeds folks of the shell monson had to have extraordinary skill that's what they need to display as super sensitive reaction and e

on his marketing team were prince michael of yugoslavia, and philippe junot, once married to princesscaroline of monaco. at lavish parties, they marketed to people like l'oreal's lilliane bettancourt, the world's wealthiest woman. >> thierry de la villehuchet would say to them, look, "come to dinner. we'll have your friends, a good time, good wine." and then here comes the hard sell-- "i've got this great money manager in new york. he makes money whatever the ather. i can introduce you, put money into my fund and i'll hand it on to bernie madoff." >> narrator: his brother bertrand said thierry believed completely in madoff. >> smith: but madoff had one condition he had to impose on everyone. funds were forbidden from listing him as an investment advisor in any marketing materials. that's because madoff was unregistered with the sec, even though he had thousands of clients and billions under management. >> i met bernie madoff in the early '90s. >> smith: sandra manzke, the founder of hedge-fund giant tremont, and later maxam capital, has publicly advocated for more transparency in the