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Truman Capote (1924-1984) once said, The thing I like to do most in the whole world is talk. . ., and talk he does in the more than two dozen interviews collected in this book. The topics are often gossip about the famous people Capote ran with, but always he provides revealing information about his writings--the authors who inspired him, his meticulous methods of research and composition, and his personal reverence for the craft of authorship. He was, as the editor notes, fiercely devoted to his art, and keenly aware of his place in the world of letters.

While his detractors, such as Ernest Hemingway and Gore Vidal, spoke out long and loud against the feisty and media-minded writer from Louisiana, Capote here has the last word. What emerges is a portrait of the author as pop culture figure--unabashed in his pursuit of fame and fortune but unstinting in his devotion to becoming one of America's major prose stylists.

These interviews range from the first he granted after the publication of his first novel through his shockingly personal self-interview which appeared at the end of his last major work.