03.16

“‘Yes, I Misbehaved Sometimes.’” Article-interview by Zoe Heller, Daily Telegraph, 3 March, 19. Omnibus piece that focuses mainly on Mailer’s feeling toward women. Asked about his negative comments about women writers in Advertisements for Myself (59.13), Mailer replies:

“ Look, I got carried away. I didn’t edit myself as carefully as I do these days. I happened to grow up in a family with a lot of wonderful adoring women—a marvelous strong mother and a lot of terrific aunts. So I took it for granted that I could say anything I wanted about women because they knew I loved them. ”

He also speaks of his ambition: “My theory of writing books has always been that it’s better to try for something big and fail than not to try at all.”