As stated in the introduction to this interview, Norman Mailer has often been accused of being overly ambitious as a writer. Arguably true, but that means he has never been afraid to write large, loud, and passionately. Once you decide to live and write like that, the only thing you can guarantee is that you will, more than once, fall on your ass.

My taste in prose has always run in a different direction from Mailer, but listening to this interview there seemed less of the bombast I remember from the past and an encroaching spirituality built in equal parts of God, American intelectualism, and Texas Hold 'Em.

A Mailer fan or not, it's always a pleasure to listen to the confident voice of a powerful writer.