Nothing specific, said James K Glassman.
"Okay," Bush replied, "I want to talk about painting."
After early self-portraits in the shower and then dozens of paintings of dogs and cats, Bush, it seems, has now moved on to world leaders. He told Glassman that he wanted to produce portraits of 19 foreign presidents and prime ministers he worked with during his time in the White House.
Nearly five years after leaving office, the nation's 43rd president lives a life of self-imposed exile in Texas, more interested in painting than politics, privately worried about the rise of the Tea Party, golfing with fervour, bicycling with wounded veterans and enjoying a modest revival in public opinion.
That his voice remains silent may be all the more striking given how much he seems at the centre of the debate anyway, including whether to use force in the Middle East and how to find the balance in a surveillance state.
When the rollout of the federal health care exchange was botched, some looked to Bush's expansion of Medicare for lessons. When President Barack Obama vowed to fix it, he promised a "tech surge", echoing the language used by Bush regime in Iraq. And when Obama pushes to overhaul the immigration system, he notes that his predecessor supported it too.
But Bush seems to miss none of it. "He's moved on," said Mark K Updegrove, director of the Lyndon B Johnson Presidential Library. "He's comfortable with the decisions he made. He doesn't obsess about his place in history."
In private, Bush expresses disappointment in Obama's performance. And he views with concern the growing influence of the Tea Party. His brand of compassionate conservatism — increasing the federal role in education, expanding Medicare coverage and providing a path for illegal immigrants — is anathema to many new Republican Party activists.
