From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

What do British writer Salman Rushdie, American filmmaker Oliver Stone and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev have in common? Only this: all three are central figures in important stories that were in the news last week, and all three gave exclusive interviews to TIME, contained in this issue.

In hiding with a multimillion-dollar price on his head, the India-born Rushdie made a surprise appearance at a dinner held by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism honoring the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment. Beforehand, TIME International managing editor Karsten Prager presented Rushdie with an article that appeared last week about the Indian writers he has inspired. Later, in a well-guarded safe house outside Manhattan, the two talked for 1 1/2 hours. "Quite simply," says Prager, "he is still determined to be heard."

Oliver Stone also has a story to tell -- about a dismal day in Dallas that changed American history. Last June, TIME criticized the plot of Stone's new movie, JFK -- out this week -- which argues that Jack Kennedy was felled in a carefully concealed coup d'etat. Stone said our comments were part of an Establishment cover-up (they were not). Finally we got together to discuss his views. "He came armed to the teeth with his research," says correspondent Martha Smilgis. "It still didn't convince me that there was a general conspiracy, but his movie gets you thinking."

Mikhail Gorbachev used his interview with TIME to reject speculation that he is on the verge of resigning. On two hours' notice last Friday afternoon, the Soviet leader called Moscow bureau chief John Kohan and editor-at-large Strobe Talbott to his Kremlin office for an 80-minute interview. Also present were historian Michael Beschloss, who is co-writing a book with Talbott on the Bush-Gorbachev relationship, and TIME's Felix Rosenthal. "He exuded a sense of complete control," says Kohan, "in what is clearly the most difficult crisis of his political career."

Our goal is to cut through the media clutter and get to the central truths of a story. This week we're proud to bring you the unvarnished words of the chief participants in three fascinating events who chose, as have so many world figures before them, to tell their story through TIME.