[Text reads: “Austin’s SoGoprah’s Book Club Pick!”]
Austin Nichols: [holds up book] This is “The Fountainhead.” This is not Southern Gothic but I don’t care. It’s incredible and I believe it’s a must for any artist. It’s about idealism, and the price of compromise. It’s incredible. So I’m going to read a passage that I find hilarious. This is actually when, um… [looks at camera] Okay, stop. [fades to later] This is when Howard Roark, our idealist, the young architect, goes to meet and ask for a job from his sort of, hero, Henry Cameron, who is now sort of a disenfranchised architect who doesn’t… He was a big name, and he was brilliant, and had the world at his fingertips and became difficult, and doesn’t get any jobs anymore, and Roark goes to ask him for a job. So, this is a great passage. Starting with Henry Cameron to Howard Roark, [reading from “The Fountainhead”]
“ ‘When did you decide to become and architect?’
‘When I was 10 years old’
‘Then you don’ know what they want so early in life. You’re lying.’
‘Am I?’
‘Don’t stare at me like that. Can’t you look at something else? Why did you decide to become an architect?’
‘I didn’t know it then but it was because I didn’t believe in God.’
‘C’mon. Talk sense’
‘Because I love this earth. That’s all I love. I love the shape of things on this Earth. I want to change them.’
‘For whom?’
‘For myself.’
‘How old are you?’
‘Twenty-Two.’
‘Where did you hear all that?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘Men don’t talk like that at 22. You’re abnormal.’
‘Probably.’
‘I didn’t mean it as a compliment.’
‘I didn’t either.’
‘Got any family?’
‘No.’
‘Work through school?’
‘Yes.’
‘In what?’
‘In the building trades.’
‘How much money have you got left?’
‘Seventeen dollars and thirty cents.’
‘When did you come to New York?’
‘Yesterday.’
Cameron looked at the white pile under his fist. ‘God damn you,’ Cameron said softly, ‘God damn you, Roark!’ Cameron, suddenly leaning forward, ‘I didn’t ask you to come here. I didn’t need any draftsmen. There’s nothing here to draft. I don’t have enough work to keep myself and my men out of the Bowery Mission. I don’t want any full visionaries starving around here. I don’t want the responsibility. I didn’t ask for it. I never thought I’d see it again. I’m through with it.’
‘I was through with that many years ago. I am perfectly happy with the drooling adults I have here who have never had anything, and never will. It makes no difference what becomes of them. That’s all I want.’
‘Why did you have to come here? You’re setting out to ruin yourself, you know that, don’t you? And I’ll help you do it. I don’t want to see you. I don’t like you. I don’t like your face. You look like an insufferable egotist. You’re impertinent. You’re too full of yourself. Twenty years ago I would have punched you in the face with the greatest of pleasure. You’re coming to work here tomorrow at nine o’clock sharp.’
‘Yes,’ Roark said, rising.
‘Fifteen dollars a week, that’s all I can pay you.’
‘Yes.’
‘You’re a damn fool. You should have gone to someone else. I’ll kill you if you go to anyone else! What’s your name?’
‘Howard Roark.’
‘If you’re late, I’ll fire you.’
‘Yes.’ Roark extended his hand for the drawings.
‘Leave these here!’ Cameron bellowed, ‘Now, get out!’”
[Austin looks at camera] That’s the fountainhead.
[Text reads: “Austin Nichols really wants you to go get ‘The Fountainhead’!”]
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