A memoir like your new book, “Every Day Is Extra,” often means people are shaping their legacy. Is that something you’re thinking about now? No, I don’t look at the book as a political book. I really view it as a personal exploration of my life. The things I write about are the things most people have heard about. It’s an opportunity for me to set the record straight in a number of cases.

You spent a lot of time with Senator John McCain and worked with him on normalizing relations with Vietnam in the 1990s. What will you miss about him? Just a camaraderie, a respect, a mutual willingness to tackle tough things and speak forcefully about controversial issues. And John was fun. He was quixotic at times and volatile, and that could occasionally be a challenge, but — and the “but” is capitalized — I think we shared a sense of obligation and a sense of commitment to duty and to live up to a certain ideal.

You write that you considered having McCain as a running mate during your 2004 presidential run. Did you really talk about that with him? We really talked about it. We met in my hideaway in the Senate. We both knew there were some big hurdles getting your own party to accept the idea of dealing with certain issues. In the end, John felt very strongly that he wasn’t prepared to make the leap. We flirted, but we never had a date.