selected interviews

The New York Times, Where a Literary Couple Catch Their Breath Down the Shore, August 3, 2007
A profile on Gay Talese at his 1902 house in Ocean City, New Jersey, the town where Talese was born.

The Morning News, with Robert Birnbaum, June 5, 2007
A rowdy conversation with writer Gay Talese about his new memoir, Lorena Bobbitt's Hollywood agent, attending fights with James Baldwin, and a hundred other reports about the joys and pains of getting a story right.

Podcast: CUNYradio, Gay Talese: Father of The New Journalism, June 5, 2007
In an engrossing talk, as part of the Kingsborough Community College's Bestselling Author Series, Gay Talese explains the importance of in-person interviews and why his researching style continues to work for him. (n.b.: requires Quicktime)

Audio Interview: KCRW The Treatment, February 21, 2007
Writer Gay Talese speaks with Elvis Mitchell about his latest book, A Writer's Life.

Palm Beach Daily News, We Are Storytellers, February 17, 2007
Authors Gay Talese and Jennet Conant discusses their works and the craft of writing.

Newsweek, A Life in Books, January 29, 2007
Newsweek queries Gay Talese about which writers were influential to him.

Vanity Fair, The Esquire Decade, January 2007
A profile of the legendary Esquire editor Harold T.P. Hayes, who commissioned many of the best journalistic articles by Gay Talese.

Audio Interview: NPR, Times' Photographs Capture New York onDeadline, January 1, 2007
An interview with Gay Talese about the new book of photographs of New York from the New York Times archives, 365 Days, for which Talese wrote the introduction.

Video Interview: New York 1, One on 1: Literary Giant Gay Talese, October 24, 2006
In a New York 1 interview with Budd Mishkin, Gay Talese recounts some of his experiences in his fifty years of writing. (n.b.: requires RealOne Player)

Bullpen, Lecture: Gay Talese, September 14, 2006
Gay Talese speaks to NYU Journalism students and faculty about the origins of his career and his latest book.

Chicago Sun-Times, Sunday Lunch with Gay Talese, May 28, 2006
A conversation with Gay Talese over lunch in Chicago.

Sports Illustrated, Q&A with Gay Talese, May 25th, 2006
The Sports Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch interviews author Gay Talese, who began his career as a sportswriter.

Video Interview: The Charlie Rose Show, May 19, 2006
Guest host Ken Auletta interviews Gay Talese on The Charlie Rose Show about his book A Writer's Life.

Truthdig, with Blair Golson, May 2, 2006
Just as it is difficult for many people under the age of 50 to understand why Orson Welles is consistently ranked as one of the most influential film directors of all time, it may be equally difficult for people of the same age group to understand why Gay Talese is universally regarded as one of the most influential journalists of all time.

Men's Vogue, Time Bandit, Spring 2006
How tennis, martinis, and a Xerox machine helped the master reporter Gay Talese turn procrastination into perfection.

New York Times, Gay Talese's Memoir Emerges After 14 Tortured Years, April 18, 2006
A New York Times profile on the fourteen years that it took Gay Talese to finish his book A Writer's Life.

Columbia Journalism Review, A Work in Progress, March 2006
Gay Talese talks with Robert Boynton about the evolution of his latest book, A Writer's Life.

The New York Observer, Gay Talese, December 18, 2005
After thirteen years of wandering, the patron saint of New Journalism finds his way to a new book.

MPW @ USC, with Irwin R. Lewis, July 21, 2005
Gay Talese is widely hailed as one of the first practitioners of the "New Journalism." His books include The Kingdom and the Power, winner of the prestigious Christopher Book Award, Honor Thy Father, Fame and Obscurity, Thy Neighbor's Wife, and Unto the Sons. He has appeared widely in such publications as Reader's Digest, Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times, and Esquire.

Mediabistro, with David S. Hirschman, April 27, 2004
A legendary and innovative journalist talks about his craft, his career, and why we're not calling him the father of the New Journalism.

The Philadelphia Independent, The Private Investigator, April 2004
While the New Journalism sought celebrity, Gay Talese made a study of it.

Video Interview: The Charlie Rose Show, January 23, 2004
Charlie Rose interviews Gay Talese about his book The Gay Talese Reader and his journalistic career.

New York University Portfolio, Gay Talese, The Kingdom and the Power, 2004
An article about the origins of Gay Talese's groundbreaking book about the New York Times, The Kingdom and the Power.

Newsweek, I Work As Hard As I Ever Did, December 17, 2003
An interview with Gay Talese about the renewed interest in his work and his next book.

Audio Interview: The Connection on WBUR Boston (NPR), with Dick Gordon, November 21, 2003
The post-Second World War America of Gay Talese's youth revered heroes and paid little heed to the rest, leaving a guy like Talese free to roam beneath the radar, eavesdropping, watching a world that was someone else's oyster. In dispatches for high school, and then college, and then big city newspapers, Gay Talese celebrated the anti-heroes. The runners-up and the also-rans, the ones who dropped the ball or lost the girl. Then all of a sudden, the writer himself, was a contender. (n.b.: requires RealOne Player)

Audio Interview: WGBH, Gay Talese: His Portraits and Encounters, November 20, 2003
Gay Talese speaks about his career at the Boston Athenaeum. (n.b.: requires RealOne Player)

Audio Interview: NPR Day to Day, September 9, 2003
When Gay Talese published his story "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" in 1966, he started a revolution in journalism--a new genre called The New Journalism. Slate founding editor Michael Kinsley spoke to Talese about the legacy and future of The New Journalism.

On the Media, Gay Talese, November 29, 2002
Bob Garfield interviews Gay Talese about the impact of Playboy magazine on America.

PBS interview for the series "Bridging New York", July, 2002
This transcript is from a videotaped interview for the "Bridging New York" segment of "Great Projects."

Time, A Rebel's Look at the Kingdom, 2000
An article in Time magazine about the genesis of Gay Talese's book The Kingdom and the Power.

Creative Nonfiction, Gay Talese and the Fine Art of Hanging Out, 2000
A profile by Barbara Lounsberry on Gay Talese and how he finds and researches his journalism pieces and books.

Audio Interview: The Southerner, Gay Talese on Willie Morris, 1999
Gay Talese talks about the editor Willie Morris and his influence on Talese's career. (n.b.: requires Quicktime)

Video Interview: The Charlie Rose Show, February 8, 1993
A panel discussion with authors Susan Sontag, Gay Talese, and Norman Mailer in honor of The Actors Studio in New York.

Audio Interview: Wired for Books, with Don Swaim, 1992
Gay Talese, author of The Kingdom and the Power, speaks with Don Swaim in this 1992 interview about Talese's book, Unto the Sons. Talese says he has always had difficulty to turn the mirror around to analyze himself. Part of this problem spawns from the reporter's mind set to remain neutral during a story. (n.b.: requires RealOne Player)