Lipton’s Journal/January 31, 1955/358
The key to Bill Styron’s nature is that he does not want a total involvement or commitment to anything or anyone. His strength and weakness as a man and an artist is in that. He was repelled by Maloney[1] because Maloney insisted his friends go all the way with him, and Bill was not ready for that. Indeed, I would not have been either. One reason there may be few art works in the future is that we will be artists at human relations, give ourselves entirely to people in order to save them.
note
- ↑ A writer friend of Larry Alson (1920-2016), a writer and editor who was married to Mailer’s sister Barbara, and also of William Styron.