BORN: 1932 in Ocean City, New Jersey
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Reporter for the New York Times from 1956 to 1965. Since then he has written for the The New Yorker, Esquire, and other national publications. His article "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" was named the "best story Esquire ever published."
He is a bestselling author of fourteen books, including High Notes, a new collection of writings due out January 17, 2017.
ON HANDLING DEFEAT: “My defeats started early: I couldn’t get a date, I was unpopular in high school. But I’m doing the same thing at 84 that I was at 14, which is aspiring to do better than I did yesterday. When I did that famous Esquire piece on Sinatra in 1966, his valet told me that he sometimes hears Frank trying to get a date on a Saturday night and failing. I said, ‘You’re kidding. Frank Sinatra can’t get a date?’ I’ve learned that we’re all doomed to fail sometimes, but you’ve got to have faith in yourself.”
ON HANDLING AGING: “Here's what works for me: I go out every goddamn night of the week. Every night. And I order a martini every goddamn night of the week. I never turned down opportunities to see new things or meet new people.”
ON HANDLING COMPETITION: “You don't deal with it. You deal with your own self. I wrote as well as I could, and as long as I met my own standards, I didn't concern myself with anything else. And I've gotten bad reviews all my life. But so did Ernest Hemingway. So did F. Scott Fitzgerald. So did Philip Roth — and I think he's the best writer of my generation. You can only do the best you can do, and as long as you're doing that, there's no reason you have to feel that you've failed.”
ON HANDLING REGRETS: “I'm trying to think of one, but I can't. There's not a story I wrote that I wish I hadn't. There's not a way I treated a person where I wish I would have treated that person differently. I've had people I've loathed, and I let them know. I've had people I've loved, and I let them know, too. This is not to say that my life has been one of endless pleasantness and cordiality. But I've never regretted letting someone know how I feel.”
FOR MORE ON TALESE: Check out his official website at http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/talese/
All quotes taken from an interview in the December 2016 issue of Men’s Journal.
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