Journalists were once outsiders looking in, says Gay Talese, but today their proximity to Washington makes them myopic; they'd be wiser to disperse and keep their eyes on the horizon.
New Journalism pioneer Gay Talese talks about the difference between incorporating storytelling into journalism and invention, as displayed by writers such as James Frey.
Gay Talese, the New Journalism portraitist of such machos as Joe DiMaggio, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra says respect, not sex, is the key to a happy marriage.
The esteemed writer only loses sleep when the Yankees play on the west coast.
Big Think interviews the legendary journalist and author of, most recently, “A Writer’s Life.”
Since growing up in his parents’ tailoring and dressmaking shop in New Jersey, the writer has maintained a taste for family craftsmanship.
Gay Talese describes the tobacco-filled and liquor-drenched newsrooms of The New York Times in the sixties—where men passed out on typewriters, and no one was quite sure just how the […]
Sex, claims Gay Talese, has always been everywhere—it’s just a matter of how one has to go about finding it. Here he explains how, while there have been few changes […]
The constraints of reality, Gay Talese argues, have turned many great writers away from non-fiction. Yet, with the proper patience and engagement with one’s subject, those bound to the facts […]
The key to a lasting relationship, says Gay Talese, is looking past the ‘mating game’s’ wonted rituals and flowery ambiguities and learning to emphasize mutual freedom and respect.
Gay Talese describes the deleterious effects that recording devices, hollowed expense accounts, and an emphasis on ‘indoor life’ have had on the writing process.
Gay Talese explains how a childhood spent eavesdropping on conversations in a New Jersey dress-shop and a lingering sense of being an outsider prepared him for the writing life.
A chronicler of the lives of others now chronicles his own.
Gay Talese introduced storytelling to the practice of journalism.
Oprah keeps books alive in a “multi-task society.”
After 50 years in New York, Gay Talese has maintained the village mentality of his Ocean City childhood.
Gay Talese considered truth telling to be his work, and dressed accordingly.
Not much has changed, except journalists are now just as elite as those they cover.
Writing has never been fun, but with enough time its pretty good.
The best interviewers include his mother, and the best techniques include wandering.