"This is a story about institutions that are too big to fail, but it's also a story about people who think that they're too big to fail, and it is a story about hubris and ego, and the ethos on Wall Street," Sorkin said.

"And that's something that hasn't changed yet. Many of the people in positions of power now think of themselves, for better or worse, almost as survivors; like a cancer survivor. And I think there's a fundamental question about capitalism and now their responsibilities - to the community, to the tax payer, now that they've taken the taxpayer money and were rescued," he added.

Sorkin told the 9NEWS Morning Show he wants the reader to be part of the many conversations and meetings that went on behind the scenes of the collapse. "It was very challenging," he said. "It was the hardest thing I've ever done. I did write it as a narrative. I wanted to be accessible to everybody, so that readers could actually understand what was happening."

"And to me, it was like a movie. It really was. It was a dramatic tale, and I wanted to tell it that way. You know you hear a lot about CDOs [collateralized debt obligations] and CDS [credit default swap] and tronches [financial segments or groups] and all this kind of Wall Street jargon, but at the end of the day it always comes down to the people behind the scenes, and that's what this story's about."