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Jul 10

Gay Talese on writing on shirt boardsI want to be forced to work slowly because I don’t want to get too much on paper….I take a long time…..I don’t use notebooks. I use shirt boards….I cut the shirt board into four parts and I cut the corners into round edges, so that they can fit in my pocket. I also use full shirt boards when I’m writing my outlines. I’ve been doing this since the fifties.
The whole interview, like Matt says, is a must-read. Love the bit where Talese says he never had any confidence, like John Updike, “who had tremendous confidence in himself because his mother said, You’re the greatest little shit in the world. You’re so wonderful, wonderful, wonderful—and he believed it.”Talese at one point is asked when he found out he had talent, and he says, “Never. All I have is intense curiosity.”

I want to be forced to work slowly because I don’t want to get too much on paper….I take a long time…..I don’t use notebooks. I use shirt boards….I cut the shirt board into four parts and I cut the corners into round edges, so that they can fit in my pocket. I also use full shirt boards when I’m writing my outlines. I’ve been doing this since the fifties.

The whole interview, like Matt says, is a must-read. Love the bit where Talese says he never had any confidence, like John Updike, “who had tremendous confidence in himself because his mother said, You’re the greatest little shit in the world. You’re so wonderful, wonderful, wonderful—and he believed it.”

Talese at one point is asked when he found out he had talent, and he says, “Never. All I have is intense curiosity.”