03.4

“You’re in the Lap of History.” Interview by Malcolm Jones. Newsweek, 27 January 2003, 62–64, 66. The focus is on Mailer’s new book, The Spooky Art (03.7). Mailer also talks about his health; the new (secret) novel he has completed 200 pages of (The Castle in the Forest); the Iraq War, Provincetown (“Nobody gives a damn what you do. Or what you did. Nobody’s that taken with your importance”); and how his past is used “like a stick to poke at an old lion between the bars.” He says of the assault on his second wife, Adele:

“ The stabbing was inexcusable. And since I was not punished for it in any real way—I had to do a couple of years of probation, which is onerous, but certainly no punishment—there are people who think I got off easy. And they may be right. I believe you really do pay for your fuckups, and you pay very hard after you die. There’s no doubt in my mind that I will pay for that one. ”