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Sometimes Kennedy would get on the phone himself to explain why he was turning down a request. Writer Michael Gross, who had reported on Kennedy for New York and Esquire magazines, talked with him about a book project in the fall of 1998. By way of declining, Kennedy brought up the impending 35th anniversary of his father's assassination. "There are tons of books coming out," he said, "some with the family's involvement, but it's just not me." He talked about George. "I find the magazine excruciating at times, when I have to participate in a personal way, but it's part of what I signed up for." And he said he understood why people were interested in him--he was getting pretty interested too. "Probably the present is more compelling than the past," he told Gross. "The beginning of life is just preparation." The preparation, he implied, was finally over. John Kennedy was all ready for the main act to begin.
--With reporting by John Cloud and Romesh Ratnesar/New York and James Carney/Washington